Because I - George Weasley
by ampoke
Summary: Jordie Winters hides every inch of her life behind a tough exterior and aggressive personality. She's unnoticed by everyone around her until she somehow manages to get caught up in the Weasley twins adventures. Now she's a Triwizard Champion and its up to the forces around her to decide if she lives or not. *Part two of the Where We Came From series*
1. Because I Am Jordie

I took a long sip of butterbeer while the game continued. As the Irish scored another goal, I stood up, booing the team for being as good as they were.

"Merlin, Jo. You're way too into this," Chai chastised me. "Or you're insanely drunk, at this point I can't really tell."

I pulled a half drank bottle of Firewhiskey out from under my chair, holding my index and thumb up to indicate a small amount, "Lil' bit drunk."

Chai snorted, pulling the bottle out of my hand, "You're a horrible drunk."

"I can't see. Can we get closer?" I asked, leaning over the seat in front of me. Chai grabbed my elbow and pulled me onto the main platform on our level. I stumbled over myself as we reached the base where another group had already gathered. "Wow! Look at Vik! He's going so fast."

"Can you manage to contain your excitement and clumsiness while I go get you some water and a snack?"

"I want to sit down," I held onto Chai's hand as I slid onto the ground, staring out at the games from between the bars of the platform.

Chai left for the snacks and I watched as Viktor Krum chase a golden ball across the Quidditch pitch.

"You realize that there are seats for you to sit in, right? You don't have to sit on the ground," a boy standing next to me said. I looked up. His long hair cascaded over his face, as he grinned at me. "You're drunk. Cute, but drunk. Come on, then, get off the ground."

He slid an arm around me, pulling me off the ground with more force than it looked like he'd have.

I looked at him, his hair, his eyes, and his freckles, "Weasley?" I looked past him at the rest of the redheaded group. "Weasley_s_, my mistake."

"Hogwarts student, then? Only a Hogwarts student would be able to recognize a Weasley, specifically while drunk."

"About to start my sixth year."

"Gryffindor?"

"Sadly."

Charlie Weasley raised a bushy eyebrow, "Sadly? Gryffindor is the best house if I do say so myself."

"Says the person who's entire family was born and raised with red and gold dangling from their diapers."

"You're very intellectual for a drunk."

I watched the game for a few seconds, "How's Romania?"

"How do you even know about that?"

I grinned, "I'm a Gryffindor. Surrounded by Weasleys. Classes with Weasleys. Classes taught by professors who raised the Weasleys."

"Jo! Drink this," Chai handed me a bottle of water but I didn't open it. Instead I just stared out into the pitch. Watched the Irish score another point and while everyone around me cheered for their team, I shook my head and stared at my feet.

"What happened when I was gone?" Chai asked me.

I looked at him, "Sobered up."

"That's not a thing."

I pulled a wand out of my combat boots, "Bippity, boppity, sobriety."

"You're underage. No magic out of school."

"We're at the Quidditch World Cup, Chai. Thousands of wizards using magic, no one's going to notice when I use a cleansing spell on myself."

He frowned, leaning against the bars of platform, "Still illegal."

I grinned, ruffling his hair.

"Squib at the Quidditch World Cup? How unusual."

"Surprising, father. Jordan Winters still ucompaning a Squib."

"I don't even think we deserve to be associated with _that_."

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I turned towards the four people walking behind us. Two girls with pin straight, long black hair with faces resembling that of my own walking alongside Lucius and Draco Malfoy.

"Oddly enough, you're still being trailed by two dogs, Malfoy."

Lucius cocked his head, white blond hair shifting against his black cloak, "As Viktor Krum is on the side of the Bulgarians, I do suppose you're here to support them?"

"Is there a problem with me supporting my friend?"

"Well, as the rest of Hogwarts is supporting the Irish and you don't seem to be making any friends there as it is, is it really in your best interest to be fraternizing with the enemy?" Draco sneered.

Harry Potter stepped away from his friends to glare as Draco spoke.

"Ah and hanging around Potter, the Blood-Traitors, and Mudbloods probably aren't doing you any favors either."

I reached for the wand in my boot but my Chai held my arm. I scowled, "We didn't ask you to comment on our blood status. We're all very much aware of where we stand in your eyes." I cracked my knuckles, "Now kindly back away from me before-"

"Jo, calm down," Chai whispered, grabbing at my shoulder and turning me towards the game. The Malfoy's chuckled as they left, my sisters following directly behind them.

Charlie Weasley turned to me, "Jordan Winters, huh? Therefore you're Jackson Bray's little friend?"

"I didn't say your siblings were the only reason I knew who you were."

He chuckled, "That explained the attitude, the lack of rule following, and the hatred for the Malfoys. Let me guess, you also plan on dropping next year and moving to Romania to play with the world's most lovable pets."

"If you mean werewolves, then yes."

Chai elbowed me, forcing me to keep my eyes on the game, "You're still drunk."

"Only a little."

For the rest of the game Chai and I were silent. Disappointment filled my chest when I glared at the final score. Viktor had caught the snitch, but the Irish still won. I slipped out of the stadium with Chai following close behind.

I grabbed another Firewhiskey before retreating to our tent on the opposite side of the camp. Unlike most of the other tents that the wizards had set up, ours was actually the same size inside as it was out. It was only Chai and I so I couldn't specifically complain. He was gay and I was emotionally unavailable.

Chai retreated into the tent and I sat outside with a Firewhiskey in my hand. As the Bulgarian fans sulked their way to their tents, the boos came out and people were getting overly intoxicated quickly. Leave it to the Durmstrang boys to let their rage translate into drunkenly hitting on their classmates.

I stood as I saw a group of Viktor's friends coming towards me, calling out my name. Drunken laughs fell from their lips as they stumbled towards me, holding onto each other to keep from falling. Although I was drunk, they were wasted and that's not a recipe for a successful night.

"Jordan!" I looked to Charlie Weasley as him and two of his brothers ran towards me. "Our father wanted to know if you and your friend wanted to come to our tent for dinner."

I raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

One of the brothers perked up. I knew them both all-to-well. Fred and George Weasley, the pranksters and absolute meneses of my year. They'd practically pranked everyone in the school. Well, except for me. You generally have to recognize someone's existence to stink bomb them.

"He heard your name mentioned when Malfoy was talking. Professor Lupin's god daughter, eh? They're good friends, our father and Remus. Dad wants to get to know you," Fred explained.

I swallowed, "Not a fan of explaining my personal life to people I don't know. Sorry."

"Then let's get to know each other," George said, quietly.

I forced a smile, nodding towards the three, "I'll get Chai."

"Jo, no. Bad idea. I forbird this. You're plastered and I can't control any of the shit that comes out of your mouth."

"I'm fine. I'll be fine. I'll walk in a straight line and keep my secrets locked inside the vault."

We left the tent, following the redheads through the crowds of Bulgarians. Many of them called my name or whistled, and I could do nothing but cringe and withdraw into myself just a little more.

Charlie glanced at me, "Viktor Krum and all them, you know them?"

"Krum's family took me in for a summer a couple of years ago," I stammered. "His friends aren't entirely too fond of me though." I looked towards Chai and then at my watch. "In, let's say, 58 seconds, I'd suggest running."

"I've got my money on 38, Jo."

"What do you-"

The hands of a scrawny Bulgarian boy pulled me close to him. The smell of rum on his lips was almost as vile as the state of his yellowed and damaged teeth, "Pretty. Very pretty. I always thought Viktor vas kidding vhen he said you vere good in-"

My fist had hit his jaw before anyone got the pleasure of hearing the rest of his slur. I looked towards the others, "Right on time. I'll pay you later, Chai."

The Weasley's still hadn't quite wrapped their heads around what I meant. Well, not before a group of angry hormone pumped Bulgaians were stumbling towards us with wands out and fists raised,

Chai groaned, "Yes, she means it when she says run, now go!"

Chai and I slid past them, darting into the field of tents and people in front of us. "What the hell did you do to piss all of them off so much? You and Viktor are practically brother and sister!" Chai ranted, out of breath. We came to a stop as were reached a patch of shamrocks and drunken Irish celebration.

He turned around, looking for the Weasleys. He began to say something to me, reaching for my arm as a force twice my size slammed into my back, knocking me into the grass.

"Charlie I'm going to kick your- oh oh sorry…"

One of the twins stood, reaching a hand out to me to help me stand. His ears were bright as he apologized profusely, "Charlie jinxed me, couldn't stop running. Sorry, uh- oh merlin this is awkward." His ears glowed brighter as he stumbled for my name.

I snorted, pulling grass chunks out of my hair, "Name's Jordie. And don't worry about it, George."

Charlie pulled to the front of the group, chuckling at his brother's awkwardness, "Tents over here."

Chai grinned, forcing me to follow the group as I struggled to pull a chunk of dirt from my hair, "How can you tell those two apart."

"George is taller and has a cupids bow and Fred has a smaller face and scar along his eyebrow."

Chai's grinned again, "Spend a lot of time staring at their lips, eh?"

"I've had a lot of time to sit and observe them. We've been in all of the same classes for the past five years. I can stare and watch and observe all I want and no one would ever notice me. You'd have to be a person of interest for a Weasley twin to pay any attention to you."

Entering the Weasley tent held a lot more anxiety than I had bargained for. It was huge and fancy and filled with people I didn't know or care to ever know.

Arthur Weasley greeted me at the entrance, "Jordan Winters, pleasure to meet you. I'm Arthur."

"Call me Jordie. And that's Chai. He's my friend."

Arthus lead us over to the series of couches, "So, Chai, if I heard right, you are a Squib."

Chai's jaw clenched at the word, "Yes."

"So do you know a lot about Muggle things? Like dishwashes?"

"Dishwashers?" Chai's eyebrows furrowed in udder confusion as he attempted to explain the concept of a machine that cleans plates.

"Dad's really into the Muggle things," Fred said sitting next to me. "Mum isn't a big fan of his hobby, but it keeps him happy."

"I thought your father asked us over here to talk about my godfather."

"That's what he said," George retorted, sitting in the armchair across from us. "We all kind of figured that wasn't the case though. He normally asks Harry and Hermione about the Muggle things because they were both Muggle raised, but a fresh opinion never hurt anyone."

Hermione and Ginny finished cooking dinner soon enough and we had light chatter as we ate. Arthur continued to interrogate Chai over different kitchen appliances, particularly the blender.

I stayed to myself for a majority of the time there. Occasionally Charlie would ask me something about Jackson or the twins would talk to me about my roommates at school.

"They don't even know my name," I explained. "Honestly, I don't think I've ever actually spoken to them either. But then again, I could also say that about the rest of the population at Hogwarts as well."

"I never really noticed that there were three Winters. I just knew about Jade and Jett and how lovely it is to prank them relentlessly," Fred said.

George nodded, swallowing a spoonful of food, "Guess we both kind of just assumed you were one of them."

I grimaced, "That's possibly the most insulting thing anyone's ever said to me."

Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione went to bed as it got dark and Arthur left the tent with Percy and Bill to go and speak to other ministry members. Charlie left to take a shower and then write to Jackson back in Romania.

"Do you know anything about the new DADA teacher? I know that Professor Lupin resigned so they've got to find someone to replace him," Fred asked.

I shrugged, "Could be anyone."

The twins started to talk about the pranks they were planning to pull on the new teacher. I could only listen for a little while, before the alcohol forced me into slumping over on the couch and falling into a dizzy kind of sleep.

I awoke to an aching feeling in the pit of my stomach. Fred was asleep on the floor in front of me and George was curled into a ball on the armchair. There was a loud crack in the air outside and both of the twins jerked awake.

"What was that?" Fred asked.

I searched the darkened tent, "Where's Chai?"

George stood, heading towards the door, "Left after you fell asleep. Back at your tent, I suppose."

Arthur, Percy, and Bill came running through the doors, "Get up! Get everyone up! We've got to get out of here."

"What's going on?"

The boys emerged fully dressed and Hermione and Ginny pulled jackets over their nightdresses.

"Into the woods, all of you! We're going to help the Ministry!"

Percy, Bill, and Charlie ran back outside, but I was still lost in my thoughts. I hadn't the slightest clue what was happening until Fred grabbed Ginny and George pushed me outside.

I saw it then. The hooded men holding the caretakers of the land above their heads. But that's not what put me on edge.

"Chai!" I screamed, watching him flail around in the air.

"They'll get him down! Let's go!" George yelled over the noise.

I pulled myself out of his grip and ran towards the group, "Chai!"

That night blurred in my eyes. Watching my best friend being treated like a puppet. Watching innocent people getting attacked. Feeling like my organs were being ripped out of my body and everything turning into white noise and blacked out skies.

All of these spun in my head until I woke up with Albus Dumbledore standing over me.

~/~

Dad won't tell us what happened after we got into the woods. He won't tell us what happened with Jordie and Chai and he hasn't gotten around to mentioning why a bunch of people in hoods would attack the Muggles.

-George Weasley


	2. Because I was Late

"If you dare put your name in that cup against my Viktor, I vill stop at nothing to keep you from vinning. Do not assume that your Squib friend, godfather, and sisters vill not stand in my vay vhen I have something so urgent to accomplish. In fact, I may just use them as tools to help me. You don't vant that, do you?"

There was a puddle on the ground, growing bigger and bigger as the minutes passed, and the injuries continued to occur. I felt my jaw dislocate, and the shape edge of a ring cut my skin open. I looked down at my stained wife beater and coughed out a laugh.

"Vhy do you laugh, girl?" he growled, grabbing my face and pushing it back against the wall of the alley.

"Because you make it seem like I care about what happens to my sisters. I could care less what you do to them, especially since I didn't do anything to provoke you besides exist along side of your star student for a summer," I snarled. "I'll stay out of the tournament if it makes you feel less threatened. I didn't want to enter it either way. I've got no need for the money. Money doesn't buy what I want in life."

Igor let go of my face, glaring at me once more. He backed away, contemplating drawing his wand on me. It was the first time he'd threatened my life. Nor, did I think, would it be the last. He was nothing short of evil, power obsessed.

"I will spare you this time, girl. Not a word of this gets back to Dumbledore, or you'll wish I'd killed you here."

"Noted," I nodded. "Now, tell Viktor hello for me, yeah?"

He seemed to contemplate taking out his wand again but I was running back onto the crowded London sidewalk before he had the chance. People stared at me. That wasn't a surprise. Typically, teenage girls didn't run out of alleyways with blood running down their faces and clothes.

I checked the rusted watch on my wrist.

10:54.

I had to be four blocks away from the station and the foot traffic was just as bad as the honking stream of cars in the street. The building of a law firm on my right had a fire escape that lead right up to the windows on the top floor.

If I wanted to catch the train, my best bet wasn't to go with the flow of the people, but above them.

Climbing up buildings and jumping over narrow alleyways attracted little attention from the busy bystanders trying to reach their day jobs, classes, or trying to catch their trains. People were too distracted yelling at the people in front of them to hurry up to notice what was happening above them.

I checked my watch as I dropped from the fire escape of the last building of the street.

10:58.

I couldn't be bothered to apologize to people as I ran past them, knocking their coffees out of their hands, or bumping them into strangers. Sprinting into Kings Cross, I checked the time again. It was ten seconds until 11. I jumped over people's trolleys trying to get through the barrier before the train left.

4 seconds left.

Parents were flooding out of the barrier, trying to blend into the surrounding people. It was a tight fit, but I managed to squeeze through the barrier with my backpack. I had to jump to see the train. It was starting to move.

I ran towards it, hoping to just barely grab the door of the last train car.

Three sets of grabbed the back of my shirt, arms, and backpack. They pulled me into a car causing us all to tumble onto the floor.

I felt like my muscles were straining in protest when I tried to stand off the pile of boys underneath me. My vision was clouding from blood loss, pain, and pure stress. The people under and around me started to prop themselves back onto their feet, doing their best to block me from the view of other students who were surely staring at me from either side of the hall.

The adrenaline of the fight with Igor and nearly missing the train was wearing off. The pain was starting to set into practically every inch of my body. Blood was still dripping down my face, onto my already stained clothes. I looked around, trying to set my boundaries as I willed myself not pass out.

Two people knelt down on either side of me, while the third yelled at everyone to sod off.

"Nothing to see here, people. Find a compartment- not that one! Anywhere but that one. Alright, alright! Get out of here!" called George Weasley.

A hand on my back helped me sit up, and then handed me a Muggle band t-shirt.

"You should change into this," said Lee Jordan. "You're shirt is kinda… well, bloody."

"What happened to you?" asked Fred. "Why were you late for the train."

I shook my head and tried to stand. My vision became spotty, and a wave of nausea wafted over me. Bile was raising into my throat. This, though, was not from pain. Rather from fear… maybe anger as well. I stumbled backwards, hitting the wall behind me.

"Freddie, help me would ya? We should get her into our compartment," said George, reaching out to help me.

I stuck out my hand, keeping him away.

"I've got it. It's fine. Thanks for helping me on the train," I muttered, turning away and walking slowly down the isle of the compartment. I found the last one, still open and empty and slid inside it.

"Don't go in there!" squealed a third year Ravenclaw. "It's cursed."

I waved her off, entering the 'cursed' compartment knowing full well who had originally 'cursed' it. I saw down, not feeling an ounce of fear. My jaw was still out of place, and my cuts were still open. I pulled my wand out and held it to my jaw.

"Episkey."

There was a hot and then cold, but my jaw was back in place, and the cuts on my face stopped bleeding. I looked into the reflection from the window. Some cuts were too deep to be healed with a simple charm. Those would scar. I already had my fair share of scars though, so I wasn't worried.

My mind drifted to what Igor had told me.

The Triwizard Tournament, being held at Hogwarts. I'd read about it before, never in a million years did I think that they'd bring it back after all of the awful things that had taken place in the years before they ended it.

Why did Igor Kokoroff even care if I entered or not? The only thing he wanted for me in life was for me to die a slow and painful death. Wouldn't he want me to enter then? If I entered there was a higher probability of me finally kicking the bucket.

My compartment door opened and the twins and Lee came inside. I continued to stare out the window.

"You really want to come into the cursed compartment?" I said, scoffing as I said it. "You know the legend, you'll die in six days in you sit down."

The twins grinned. Trouble didn't scare them, so curses didn't either.

"We brought you pumpkin juice and some sweets," said Lee.

"I've got a therapist, Jordan. She says sweets aren't the best way of coping with my problems."

He smirked, handing me the bottle of juice anyways.

"At least you address me as something that's not an insult now," he said.

I glared, "Don't get used to it."

"What happened to you anyways?" asked Fred.

"Probably got attacked by a mob of angry hags, I'd guess," Lee suggested, a stupid grinn spreading across his face.

I threw a Cauldron Cake at him, "Piss off."

He put a hand over his heart and pretended to be getting emotional.

"It's so nice to hear your kind words after such a long time."

"I didn't know you two knew each other," said Fred.

Lee snorted, "She's been mad at me since second year."

I rolled my eyes, "I have every right to still be mad at you, wanker."

"Back to name calling."

"Told you not to get used to it."

"You two have quite the bond," said George, interrupting our glaring.

"I didn't know intense hatred counted as a bond," I spat.

He smirked, "You don't hate me, Winters."

"I could disagree."

"You can't deny that I've been there for you, though," said Lee, smirking.

I scowled at him, "You've got to be kidding me! You've almost killed me more times than I can count on one hand!"

"We were kids!" he argued.

"Second years should know better than to do things that can suffocate their peers in a classroom without windows!"

"You weren't a peer! You were my friend!" said Lee, getting angry at my accusations. "I thought you'd find it funny."

I shook my head and looked out the window, "Jokes on you, I guess."

Thoughts were racing through his head too quickly to read. All I could see was sadness rather than anger. He wasn't mad at me anymore. He was mad at himself for making me drift away from him.

"I'm sorry, Jordie," said Lee, quietly.

I couldn't help but smile a little. "It's okay… It was kind of funny. Ya, know. After my life was no longer in danger."

One of the twins coughed awkwardly.

"This has been lovely," said Fred.

"Really heartwarming," George agreed.

Fred stuck out his hand, "Chocolate?"

I looked at the multicolored wrappers and then looked at Fred's way too happy face. His mind was openly giddy. His pranks and jokes bouncing around like a child's thoughts often did.

"Actually, I'm good with my tongue being the size that it is, but thanks. I'll come back to you if I feel like spending the night in the infirmary."

"How'd you know that's what they did?" asked George, looking obviously confused.

"Because she's invasive," snorted Lee.

I raised an eyebrow, "I'm observant."

"You're creepy," he argued.

"Only when I need to be," I grinned and winked at him.

He grimaced, "Yeah, that. That's creepy. Don't do that."

"Git," I spat playfully.

"Clutz," he retorted.

"That's a personal attack!" I cried. "I'm offended."

"Why? Cause you know that it's true?"

"Exactly!"

I'm not sure how I've gone five years without noticing Winters (she asked for us to call her by her last name). She's quite the personality… I don't really understand how she's stayed in the shadows while being so loud, hysterical, and, as I'm finding out, very aggressive. I hope she sticks around us. If she does, that'll make the next year the most interesting so far.

-George Weasley


	3. Because I Read Minds

When the train finally stopped, everyone was dying to get off. News of Dumbledore planning to make a huge announcement had spread through the train. Rain was flooding down onto the crowds of students making everyone rush to get into a 'horseless' carriage.

Lee and Fred jumped off the train before me and George came after. Fred seemed to get distracted laughing at a few first years slipping in the mud that led down the lake where they were getting into their boats. As the pack of students grew closer together around the carriages, Lee slowed down but Fred wasn't paying enough attention to do the same.

I jumped out of the way as Fred ran directly into Lee and stumbled back towards me. George seemed to be following the same thought train as his twin because he was also staring at the first years when he ran into me. I slipped on the soaking path and lost my footing. George grabbed my arms to keep me from falling, but in turn knocked the bottle of pumpkin juice out of my hand. He grimaced when it shattered on the ground, sending juice onto both our shoes.

"Wow, now you owe me a butterbeer and pumpkin juice. Well done, Weasley."

"I'll pay you back for that… eventually."

I rolled my eyes, shook my head, and walked away from the three boys. I hopped into the nearest carriage trying to get away from them, but they just jumped in with me.

"Listen, Winters!" said Fred cheekily. He sat next to me and wrapped a long arm around my shoulders. I tried to knock him off, but he either didn't realize, or he didn't care. "Georgey here, has never been light on his feet. Good on a broom -not as good as me, keep in mind- but just walking around offers its hardships for him."

George smacked his brother on the back of his head, "Bug off. You're the one who's always pushing me into stuff."

"Or off of stuff," added Lee.

"Don't forget through things," agreed Fred, smiling brightly at the thought of putting George through unnecessary hardships.

I finally managed to push Fred off me, and the boys were suddenly caught up in a conversation about their future joke shop.

I looked out the window and through the rain.

My conversation with Igor Karkaroff kept coming back to mind. Did he really find me that much of a threat to his institution's 'eternal glory'? Or was Viktor and I's relationship just too close for comfort? It was practically Karkaroff's fault for Viktor and I meeting in the first place. He'd known all along that I would play some part in Viktor's life, but it seems like he always assumed I'd be more of the house servant then a guest when I stayed with the Krum family for a summer.

I was bad for the dark reputation he wanted. My parents were good people, and I, unlike my sisters, followed in their path. He never wanted someone with my good intentions to come into the life of his puppet of a student.

"I didn't think you'd still carry that thing around with you," said Lee.

I pulled my attention from my thoughts to the old, worn baseball I was rolling around in my hands.

"Only thing I've got to keep me sane."

I tucked the ball back into the pocket of my robes as we stopped in front of the large doors of the castle. Before getting out of the carriage, I looked towards George.

"Maybe, don't run into me again."

All of us could see his ears turning red, even through the dark.

The four of us ran towards the castle and into the Entrance Hall. There we were met by water filled balloons hitting the floor all around us.

I pulled my cloak up and tried to stay on my feet while I walked through the mess that Peeves had made. The floor was slick with water and our shoes were already lacking traction from the rain outside.

Two bodies slid past me, yelling along the way. I stumbled, grabbing onto the person closest to me. Lee almost fell when I pulled on his robes but somehow we both managed to stay upright while the twins were sliding across the Entrance Hall like they were ice skating.

"Gits," I muttered, getting my footing on the dry stone of the Great Hall.

"Come on, Winters," said Lee, nudging me with his elbow. "They're having fun. You could take a note out of their books."

I slapped him over the head and walked to the Gryffindor table alone. I sat at the very end of the table where it seemed that no one else would ever want to sit. It was better for me to be alone like that. It made me less likely to be angry at people who didn't do anything to warrant my anger.

Well, that's what my Muggle therapist told me.

People rarely did things to warrant my anger.

I shoved my arm into my rucksack and pulled out the first book I grabbed.

_Powers You Never Knew You Had and What to Do with Them Now You've Wised Up_

I pulled out a journal as well and flipped to the pages about Legillimans and Occlumency. There was coffee stain in the middle of one of the pages, but I'd read it so many times that I didn't need to be able to see it to know what was being said.

"'Occlumency against Veritaserum' eh?"

"What are doing? Trying to become an Occlumens?"

I shut the book and turned around to look at the twins. Their soaking hair was dripping down their robes and onto the floor, making a puddle where they'd obviously been standing for a while.

I pointed my wand at Fred's clothes, "Impervius."

He flinched before realizing that I'd just dried his clothes.

"Dude, I thought you were about to light me on fire or something," he said, clutching his chest. "You're actually scary as hell now that I've seen you with your wand to my heart."

"Why do you think no one wants to be around me?" I asked, turning back around and opening my book again.

The two boys moved to sit in the seat in front of me. I peared at them from over my book. George was still dripping rainwater onto the table. I continued to look at my book, but pointed my wand at George, now. He dried in a fraction of a second and the table was no longer splattered with water.

"You know," said George. "I think the reason no one's ever around you is because you threaten them if they get too close to you."

I looked up at him, "That's exactly what I said. Now, leave."

I forced my attention back to my book, reading about the true reason why skilled occlumens can fight against the properties of Veritaserum. Somehow, reading about how to keep other people from getting into your mind, makes you want to find other minds to explore.

Fred and George were whispering as the last of the school were finding their seats before the sorting ceremony. They kept looking at me, as if I couldn't see them. I could hear their whispers but whispers didn't catch my attention as much as thoughts.

I caught myself scribbling in the journal. Writing down different emotions and thoughts on one side of the paper or the other depending on who I'd tune into.

Fred was unsurprisingly open to revealing his thoughts, even though I was hardly trying to listen. I'd only have to glance at him to know what was on his mind. For someone so simple minded it wasn't surprising that almost every thought I encountered had something to do with a prank or prank product.

George, on the other hand, seemed closed off. I could only really read his emotions with a glance, his thoughts though, were harder to pick up on. Sometimes that was just a sign of an empty mind. In this case, I felt that it wasn't though.

He seemed… anxious. Maybe afraid of opening up. Even just while having a conversation with his brother, he was thinking about other things. About fears, triggers, and regrets.

I didn't want to listen to anymore.

Sometimes it just kind of happened. It's like when someone's speaking to you and you don't care what they're saying. Sometimes, you just kind of tune in and out without noticing but the memory of their words still stay with you.

I was told that journaling would help me keep my thoughts in order. That was told to me by a Muggle who could have never imagined that I had thoughts of all the people around me to keep in order as well. In the seven year that I'd known I was a natural born Legilliman, I'd filled eight journals with the thoughts of others.

George looked up at me, noticing my staring.

"You good?" he asked.

"Are you?" I retorted.

I felt a rush of anxiety and embarrassment.

He looked at me, seemingly amused by me.

"I'm good. Excited for a new term?"

"I don't do small talk," I said.

"You write my name in your diary," he said, glancing down at the journal.

It was flipped to a page that just said GEORGE with a string of random words scribbled under it. The words couldn't have made sense to anyone but me.

I slammed it shut as the Sorting Ceremony began.

Somewhere between Couldwell and Madley I found that I'd subconsciously open the journal again and my mind was back to George. I could see his minor thoughts now.

Bouncing between cheering for new Gryffindors, thinking about food, annoying Fred, and watching me. He wasn't bothering to read what I was writing about him. Rather, why I'd found any interest in him to begin with.

Thinking about the way I'd underlined his name four times.

And then to how I would occasionally look at him but for the most part I was looking at the ceremony, while writing without paying attention to the page.

I caught myself flipping back to Fred's page at some point, writing down how he was planning on spilling milk on George's back and then shoving a Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Firework down his robes.

I glanced at Fred, an eyebrow raised. He had a hand in his pocket, trying to dig out one of the fireworks before the feast started. He was truly a child at heart.

Dumbledore's words pulled me out of Fred's mind.

"I have only two words to say to you," he told us. "Tuck in."

I quickly filled up a bowl of potato soup and went back to reading my book. It was easier to focus with food in my stomach.

"Dammit, Fred! I just dried off!" said George, grabbing the tablecloth and trying to dry off his robes.

I kept my eyes on my book, but my hand drifted to my pen when there was a crack and George slapped his brother across the back of the head.

"Why? What was the point in that?" George asked.

He was obviously frustrated, but there was the smallest hint of a smile on his face. It seemed nothing Fred did could make him mad.

"He was bored," I said. "He's been planning that since Orla Quirke."

George eyed me for a moment, but the situation quickly dissolved when plates of desserts filled the table. The twins were made equal when George shoved a blueberry up Fred's nose.

"So!" said Dumbledore, stopping the twins and Lee from being able to launch something towards the Slytherins. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices."

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs."

"That's rubbish," said Fred.

"Definite rubbish," agreed George.

"The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."

"We'll definitely be stopping by there…" said George, a grin playing at his lips. "Maybe drop some sweets off while we're down there."

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

The twins seemed too choked up to speak at this news. They were mouthing soundlessly at Dumbledore.

Despite a sudden roar of whispers and groans, Dumbledore went on, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy - but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts -"

My quill was still flowing across the pages, writing down miscellaneous information about George, Lee, and Fred. There was a variation between anger about Quidditch and excitement about the new event happening.

Suddenly, my head started to feel like it was going to implode. I grabbed at my head, trying to will the pain to subside.

"_Minds are not to be views without consent. Didn't anyone teach you decency?_"

The voice was unforgettable.

I slowly opened my eyes, looking at the surrounding people who were all staring at the doors to the Great Hall.

Alastor Moody.

His mad-eye was bouncing around the room but his actual eye was looking directly at me.

I needed some work on Occlumency. Moody's voice inside my head was definitely not my favorite experience.

Winters seems to have taken an interest in Fred and I. She scribbled our names in her journal. Lee's too. She's got something strange about her. She's definitely… quirky.

\- George Weasley


	4. Because I Don't Tell

"You're supposed to be friends with us, not trail behind like you're unwillingly tied to us," Fred told me.

Him, George, and Lee were rushing down the corridor trying to keep up with me.

"Once again, I don't do the whole making friends thing," I said, quickening my pace. "I'm an outcast remember? I don't want to be anyone's friend, especially not yours."

George chuckled, finally managing to walk next to me.

"I don't think your issue is that you're bad at making friends," he said thoughtfully. "I think your `problem is that you've got a bad habit of insulting people."

"Be nice, George," said Fred, also catching up with me and throwing an arm around my shoulder. "It's kind of endearing. I mean, if you look really deep into her eyes you can see that she kind of likes us."

I pushed his arm away from me and walked a little fast. All three boys start running ahead of me and walking backwards, so they could look into my eyes. I could feel myself blushing in embarrassment. I made a dash for the stairs and ran down the as quickly as possible

"I think what you're seeing is the calming potion I'm being forced to take," I sneered, letting the blush fall off my face.

I could practically feel the three smiling at each other before they caught up to me once again, and we started our way down the stairs to Potions.

Halfway down the stairs Jet and Jasmine pushed passed us. I slowed to make sure I didn't let them push me down. The twins and Lee were watching my sisters but paying no attention to my slowing down.

George slipped on a trick step and stumbled into me and pushed me forward.

I yelped and hit the banister. George barely managed to get his footing two steps down. He grabbed my waist from the step below me before the wave of students coming down the stairs knocked me down any further. He lifted me slightly to guide me down to the same step he was one.

We stared at each other for a moment before both of us flushed in awkwardness, and I slapped his hands away from my waste.

Fred and Lee were already at the bottom of the stairs, staring at us in amusement. George's ears were bright red, and his brother couldn't help but point that out after glaring back up the stairs.

"I don't like that," he muttered. "It's like there's three of you, but two of them are horrible people and a lot more annoying."

"Speak for yourself," I told him, looking at George. "There's another one of you and both of you are the exact same amount of annoying."

When we entered the dungeon, I chose a seat in the back and Fred sat next to me. I scrunched up my nose in visible disgust.

"This seat's taken."

"By who?" he asked, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Anyone but you," I said, trying to force him out of the seat.

"I'm sure that none of you need reminding that you'll be taking your O.W.L.s this year. Therefore, I'm going to be testing you according to what you would earn on an O.W.L.."

The class seemed to slip into a state of unease in a matter of seconds.

"Today you will be making a potion for sleep. No partners. No talking. You may begin."

I could have made that potion in my sleep. No pun intended. Chai had experienced insomnia since before I met him, so I almost always kept it stored away for him. Even, he knew how to make it and he hadn't the slightest idea of what half the ingredients were.

Fred and Lee seemed to be struggling. They kept glancing at George while he went excruciatingly slow to make sure they did it correctly.

"Keep in mind that you will be by yourselves during the O. . No help will be provided from a sibling or friend," Snape announced, glaring that Fred and Lee.

By the end of class George and I had the same sky blue colored potion while Fred and Lee were not so lucky. Lee's was cream colored and purple smoke was spilling out of it. Fred's was an odd red color that had large bubbles surfacing every few seconds.

"I think yours is alive, Fred," I snorted.

He glared at me as Snape walked around the room to tell people what they would have gotten if we were taking O. .

"I'd say both of these would get a Poor," Snape said, looking into Jet and Jasmine's potions on the other side of the dungeon. He looked at the tall boy standing in front of them who's potion he'd given Exceeds Expectations. "I'd like to tell you that copying off of classmates' work is unacceptable."

Snape had now rounded to the twins, Lee, and I. He stared into my cauldron and smiled grimly, "Outstanding, Winters. Glad to see that at least one of the triplets can brew something so simple."

If looks could kill, Jet and Jasmine would have been charged for my murder.

He then looked at Fred, George, and Lee's potions, "I could say the same for you, Weasley. Out of the six Weasley boys, you seem to be the only one who can understand the difference between a Doxy Egg and a Dragon Horn."

George grinned at Fred.

I slipped out of the dungeon seconds before the bell rang, and made my way to Transfiguration before the twins or anyone else could catch up with me. By the time I'd reached the ground floor there was a dull coming down the stairs. I groaned and slipped down the closest corridore.

The last thing I needed was another encounter with Moody before I even had his class.

The corridor was empty due to the lack of classrooms. All that was there was a set of bathrooms, an abandoned Charms classroom, and an entrance to the courtyard.

One of the bathroom doors opened and luckily for me, George of all people walked out of it.

"Oh, hey Winters! We were looking for-"

I didn't give him a chance to finish his thought before grabbing him by the robes and forcing him into the empty classroom. I forced him against the wall, one arm press against his chest to keep him from moving and the other over his mouth.

The thud of Moody's cane was nearing the classroom and I stared George dead in the face, trying to tell him to keep quiet without actually getting into his mind.

"What would she do if I licked her right now?"

I grimaced at him and pulled my hand away before he could act on that thought.

"That's disgusting," I muttered as the thud of the cane faltered into the courtyard.

"What's disgusting?" George asked.

I peered out of the class, seeing no one there to bother me. I walked into the corridor, George following along after me.

"Licking my hand," I told him, shoving an arm into my bag. "Moody has it out for me."

"Where'd you get that I was going to lick your hand?" he asked, ignoring my comment about Moody.

I shook my head and pulled out a small piece of parchment and pressed it against the wall to write on it.

_Dear Remus,_

_Moody's here. Get him out._

_J.B.W._

"What's happening?" asked George, standing behind me and looking into the courtyard. "Why are you hiding from Professor Moody?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to."

I slipped into the crowd of students, rushing to their next classes.

"But-" called George. "I do want to know the answer."

I let the crowd carry me away from him. Instead of going straight to Transfiguration, I slipped off into another abandoned corridor and into a passage that took me up to the Gryffindor Tower in a quarter of the time.

Inside, I made my way up to the girl's dormitory and tapped twice on the window closest to my bed. I opened it before a Sooty Owl flew through the window and landed on my shoulder.

I stroked her head and gave her a little cracker before tying the parchment to her leg.

"Take this to Remus, okay? Try not to get too wet. Get to shelter if you have to. I don't want you hurt."

She hooted happily before taking off into the dreary September weather.

I slipped into a seat in the back of the Transfiguration classroom only moments before McGonagall came in to start the lesson. George noticed me while the other boys were busy pestering the girls in front of them. He moved into the seat next to me and looked at me expectantly.

I opened up my Transfiguration book to a random page and pretend to busy myself with its content.

He hunched over his desk to get closer to me.

"You were reading my mind. I could feel you in my head."

I shuddered.

"You have no idea what you're talking about. You know how crazy you sound? Do you know how hard it is to be able to read someone's mind? It's practically impossible for someone who's still in school. You want to know how I knew you were planning on licking my hand? You're a disgusting, immature teenage boy. Just like the rest of them. You're all so predictable."

I expected him to get angry. Maybe for his nose to flare up or for his thoughts to start bouncing around so loud that I could hear them without trying to get in his head.

George was staring at me. He wasn't mad though. There was a small smirk on his lips

"She didn't deny it," he thought.

"You know what?" he said. "You're so incredibly out there, Winters. I've never met a person quite like you. You're so mean to people who try to be nice to you. You're smarter than everyone in this classroom combined -and don't try to deny it, I've noticed that magically extended bag you carry around and how you practically store the entirety of the Hogwarts library in it-."

"You don't have a tell when you're hiding things, and I can tell you're hiding things, I'm just not sure what those things are yet."

With every word, he seemed to get more and more excited by what was coming next. His smirk had turned into a mischievous smile and his eyes flickering between enthusiasm and trying to read me. His thoughts were bouncing off the walls of his mind similar to how his brother's did.

I leaned closer to him, staring into his eyes.

"I'm not a book that can be read."

"If Weasley twin number 1 and Miss. Winters would like to join us, I'd ask either of you to turn an object around you into a bird," said McGonnagal, glaring at us from the front of the classroom. Everyone turned around to see what would happen.

I pointed my wand at the textbook and said, "Avifors."

George copied me and our books turned into two different kinds of birds and started fluttering away. Before they could fly out the door McGonagall turned them back into books, and they thudded to the floor. George got up and collected our books.

I turned my attention back to McGonagall while she continued to scold us.

"Just because you feel like you know enough not to pay attention," she said harshly. "I'd like to remind each of you that other people in this class are inclined to learn enough to take their N.E. and I'd assume they'd like to pass."

"Yes, Professor," I said. "I'm sorry."

Fred raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley."

"I just wanted to point out that I was actually born first, so I'm Weasley twin number 1."

"My apologies, Mr. Weasley number 1. If you'd like to to demonstrate the Avifors transformation, go right ahead."

With the classes' attention now on Fred trying to turn Lee into a bird, George was back to looking at me expecting answers.

"What do you want from me?" I asked.

He slid my book back into my desk and grinned wildly.

"Give me until October 31st."

I raised an eyebrow.

"For what?"

"For me to figure you out."

I rolled my eyes, "Good luck with that one."

As the bell rang, all of us hurried out of class for our break before lunch.

Jet, and Jasmine pushed passed us when we started up the stairs towards the common room. I gave George a snarky smile.

"You didn't fall down this time."

He smirked, grabbing me around the waist as I missed the next step and nearly fell flat on my face.

"You did."

Her tell is the baseball in her pocket.

-George Weasley


	5. Because I Fought It

I'd made sure to leave my dorm fifteen minutes before breakfast was over for the possibility of just a few minutes of peace and quiet. Though I'd made a valiant effort, I wasn't surprised to find the twins and Lee were still waiting in the common room.

"You really don't need to wait around for me," I told them, sliding down the railing of the marble staircase.

"Just because we don't need to doesn't me we don't want to," said Fred cheekily.

I grimaced at the sentiment.

There were so few people in the Great Hall by the time we got there that none of us had trouble finding seats. Though, that didn't mean I didn't do my best to sit as far away from them as possible. I'd barely taken a bite of toast before Lee came scooting down the bench to sit right next to me. The twins followed suit.

I stood and grabbed my bag to walk away from them.

"Leave me alone!" I called back at them. "Can't you tell I'm trying to get away from you?"

The pattering of footsteps told me that they didn't care about what I wanted. I groaned and cut around a random corner which was nowhere near where we were supposed to be going. Suddenly, the twins were running ahead of me and stopping, so I couldn't pass.

"What the hell is your problem?" I yelled.

I tried to push past them but Fred grabbed my shoulders and tried to turn me back to face the wall. I kept my feet planted and elbowed him in the stomach.

"Hands to yourself, Weasley."

"Winters," George said, wrapping a long arm around my waist and practically picking me up to force me to face the wall. "This, is now your problem as well. You secret to keep."

I struggled out of his grasp and pushed him away from me.

"What the hell are you on about?"

Lee took his wand out of his pocket and tapped it against the brick diagonal from the closest painting three times. The hall seemed to open like a mouth and then we were standing in front of a massive curtain blocking off a narrow path.

"The secret to our success," said Lee.

"Never late to any classes," said Fred.

"Never seen when we don't want to be seen," said George.

"Never fail to get out of the scene of any crime…" I muttered. I pulled the curtain back and looked at passageway. It was as if someone had taken a shovel and dug a tunnel through the walls of the school.

We started walking through the tunnel, me following behind the others. Somehow, without seeing what was around us, I still knew exactly where we were. There were random forks where you could choose from between two and five different paths depending on where you were going.

We all slowed as we reached what seemed to be the end of the tunnel. Lee tapped the wall with his wand again and stairs appeared out of nowhere along with a curtain at the top.

"Watch your step," called Fred from the top of the passageway.

George smirked at me. I glared back and pushed past him, so I could walk up the stairs without the possibility of him falling down the stairs and onto me.

We appeared just around the corner from the DADA classroom. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The hall was practically empty because people weren't milling around outside of the class and talking like they normally did. Everyone inside already. They wanted to see what he was really about.

I walked behind Lee, but slowed when he and Fred moved to sit in the front row. George ran into me, trying to get as good of seats as he could manage.

"Get off of me," I growled at him.

Moody's magical eye twitched to look at me for longer than comfortable. The corners of his torn up mouths lifted in some kind of sadistic smile.

"Winters…" grumbled Fred. "Sit the hell down."

I reluctantly took a seat between the twins. No one seemed to realize that my body was rigid or my hands were shaking uncontrollably. I took the baseball in my pocket between my fingers to try to calm my nerves. I watched George's eyes flicker to it for a second before he pulled out his textbook from his backpack.

"You won't need that," I told him.

He looked at me confused for a moment before Professor Moody started to speak.

"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

George dropped his book back down into his bag, giving me a suspicious look as he did so.

Moody pulled out a board with our register on it and started calling out every name. People looked around, amused as his magical eye would dart around to everyone when he called their name.

"Weasley, Fred," he growled.

"Present," said George. I glared at him.

Moody proceeded to call out Fred's name again. The twins looked at each other, startled.

"Present," said George again.

Moody looked at Fred with a heart stopping stare.

"I will call your name one more time. Weasley, Fred."

"P-present," stuttered Fred.

I couldn't help but grin a little. It wasn't often that they'd let a teacher get to them.

"And Weasley, George," said Moody, staring directly at George.

George choked up the word present and Moody smiled grimly.

"Arthur's sons, I'd presume?" he asked.

Both twins nodded. For once in their lives, neither of them even thought about making some kind of a joke.

"I'm shocked that such a good man could produce two children with such a low taste in puns."

The rest of the class laughed, but the twins didn't seem to think it was very funny.

Moody looked back down to the register.

"And Winters, Jordan."

"Present," I said sharply.

Moody looked at me. His mood visibly shifted.

"You look like your mother, kid," he grunted. "And from what I'm told, you're just as talented as she is."

"Something like that," I grumbled.

"Right then," he said. "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures and a few curses here or there."

"Right then," he said. "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures and a few curses here or there."

There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind - very behind. So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. As you're sixth years, I've got clearance to teach you whatever and however I feel fit."

Maybe, it was just my nerves, but his eye shot towards me at this.

"The sooner you know what you're up against out there in the real world, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do, now is he? He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared."

I tightened my grip on my baseball.

"So. . . do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including the twins. I was not one but both of his eyes still seemed to fall on me none-the-less.

"Jordan."

"Winters," I corrected. "Call me Winters."

"Well, Winters," he retorted. "Tell me the Unforgivable Curses."

I raised an eyebrow, "I didn't have my hand raised."

"But you know them," he stated, a mangled eyebrow raised.

"I don't," I lied. "No idea."

He cackled at me and stomped up to where we were sat. Both twins tensed, but I did my best to remain as calm as I could.

"Don't lie to me," he quipped.

"I don't know," I said mirroring his tone.

I could feel him trying to get into my head. His words were seeping into my thoughts, and I did everything in my power to lock him out. He was powerful, though. So was I. I somehow managed to shut him out, but he didn't stop trying to get in. It felt like my head was going to explode at any second.

"Impirius," I gasped, grasping the baseball so hard, I couldn't feel my fingers anymore.

Moody smirked and hobbled back over to his desk. He opened his drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it.

"What do you think Ron's gonna think about that?" Fred whispered to George. Both of them sniggered.

Moody's magical eyes bounced around and landed in their direction, but he ignored them. He reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that we could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles.

Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.

Everyone was laughing - everyone except Moody and I.

I subconsciously reached for my wand.

"Think it's funny, do you?" Moody growled to the rest of the class. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

The laughter died away almost instantly.

"Total control," said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats. . ."

My hand unclasped from my baseball and moved up to press against one of my ears. I was already on the verge of throwing up without an explanation like that.

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will."

"The Imperius Curse can be fought, can't it?" someone asked.

Moody nodded, "And I'll be teaching you how. It takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Some of you will," his eye spun uncontrollably. "And some of you won't."

My head started feeling heavy, and I dropped my forehead to rest on the palm of my hand.

Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.

"What else Winters?" he asked. "Another illegal curse?"

It seemed that the twins had just noticed my state. Both of them looked at me, suddenly worried and scared of what was happening to me.

"I can't," I whispered. Both of my hands were now holding my head. My face was covered, but I could feel everyone looking at me.

His voice started pushing into my head again. This time, I couldn't get myself to fight him.

"Do you want the rest of them to fall to the same fate as-"

"Cruciatus!" I cried into my hands.

Both twins jumped on either side of me. It seemed everyone else had too from the gasps.

Turning back to the class at large, Moody reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it on the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.

"The Cruciatus Curse," said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea."

When he'd made the spider large enough for everyone to see, he pointed to it with his wand.

"Crucio!"

I didn't look at what was happening to the spider. I physically couldn't. The entire class grew more tense if it was possible and the twins were no longer cracking jokes about what was happening.

"That's sick," Fred cringed.

"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse. . . . That one was very popular once too."

I could feel his eyes on me. Both of them.

I felt my insides tighten and one hand fell into my robes to get a grasp around my wand.

Then, I was standing, my wand pointed straight at Moody's chest.

"Stop it," I sobbed. "Stop it."

He looked at me, still pointing his wand to the spider. It was twitching and flailing in pain. Everything felt still beside and behind me. The only movement was Moody's still twitching eyes, my rapid breathing, and the suffering spider.

"Expelliarmus!" I yelled.

"Not fast enough, Winters." his voice echoed around in my head.

"Crucio!"

I felt warmth transition to burning in my body.

People started screaming at him, yelling that he couldn't do that legally. It was Mad-Eye Moody though. He didn't care what he could or couldn't do. He played by his own rules.

I did nothing but cough and stiffen a little under the spell. The burning was nothing more than uncomfortable. Nothing I hadn't been exposed to before.

I forced my hand into the air and pointed my wand at him once more.

"Finite Incantatem."

There was a sharp release inside of me and the spell was lifted.

I pointed my wand, then, to the enlarged spider that had fallen to Moody's desk. It was still twitching, slowly losing complete control over itself before it would eventually die from the stress of trying to keep itself alive.

"Confringo."

The spider exploded on the stop.

Moody grinned at me, "You killed an innocent being, Miss. Winters."

"Rather dead than in pain," I said. I looked around to the rest of the class before focusing back on him. "I learned that the hard way."

I think Winters broke a little today. She's normally so calm. When she snapped on Moody it was like watching an entirely different person. It scared everyone a little bit. No one knew her, really. She'd always been so isolated… she wasn't kidding when she said Moody has it out for her.

-George Weasley


	6. Because I Won Over Monroe

_*Important*  
If you didn't know, Vincent Van Gogh painted something called The Potato Eaters_

Nothing felt remotely okay in that moment. From my perspective, everything was rotating like some kind attraction in a Halloween madhouse. The corridors started twisting and turning into directions which I knew weren't real, but it still made me stumble on straight paths.

At some point, I'd focused enough to recognize the painting that I'd walked past before. I tapped the wall with my wand and practically fell into the passageway before it was even completely open. I slumped onto my knees and clutched the stitch in my side.

My skin felt almost fuzzy from nerves and my nose was dripping with blood. I ran a shaking hand through my hair and let out a cry of pain and anger. My body was only now taking the toll of the Cruciatus Curse, and my brain ached from Moody forcing himself into my thoughts.

There was a dull burning covering my limbs but that was nothing compared to the burning on the inside of my body. It felt like inhaling fire. My lungs felt like they were melting, and my eyes started to burn from the internal heat.

Somehow, I managed to pull myself to my feet and drag myself away from the entrance of the passageway. I wanted to be as far from Alastor Moody as possible.

I could hear the bell that dismissed classes ring, however dull it was. There was a sudden rush around me due to people walking on every side of the passageway. I took a random turn that I suspected would take me up towards Gryffindor tower as there was a long stairway that most likely lead up to the next floor.

My legs became weak in the first twenty or so steps. I refused to let myself stop though. I couldn't be there.

Then, my knees gave out, and I tripped, falling forwards and slamming my face against the edge of the step. The bridge of my nose split open, and my lip started to swell.

"Hey, stay there," whispered someone from behind me.

There were hands wrapping around me and pulling me to a sitting position. My eyes were so full of tears that I couldn't see who it was.

"It's Fred," said the person. He used his robes to clean the blood from my face. "Winters, it's Fred."

Fred was sat on the step next to me, brushing the dirt off me, and untangling my rucksack from my arms.

I think I gave up the whole tough act in that moment. I'd only ever been the tough version of me to the twins. Lee had seen me vulnerable before but that was when we were young. It had been years since anyone had truly seen me in a state where my walls weren't built up higher than my self doubt.

I felt a single tear slip from my eye.

"You can have emotions beside hate around us, Winters," said Fred quietly. "And I'm going to assume that the natural human thing to do in this situation is cry and I promise not to tell anyone if you cry."

My lip started to quiver, and I let out a small sob and leaned into Fred's arms. He held me against his chest, rubbing my back as I cried.

"What you did in there," muttered Fred into my hair. "Was bloody incredible. But I am so so sorry."

I could hear his heartbeat speed up.

"Because I know that something really really awful had to happen to you for you to be able to even function under the Cruciatus Curse."

I put my hand over my mouth in shock of what he had just said and in turn I cried even harder. Fred tightened his hold on me and rested his face against the top of my head.

"My mum was an Auror," I told him. "Moody was her partner."

"That's why he said that you look like her… because he knew her."

I nodded, "Then she died… I don't think he ever forgave himself for it. Said that it was his fault for not picking up on the fact that they were coming for us."

"For who?" Fred asked. "You and your mum?"

"My sisters and I. They took us in the middle of winter right after our fourth birthday. Tortured and killed our mum... Burned down the house. Dad couldn't have stopped it… it happened in the middle of the night and he was… out all night."

"Tortured her with the Cruciatus Curse…" said Fred, starting to put some of the pieces together.

I looked down at the ground and let a new wave of tears wash over me.

"I watched it. I watched them torture her for hours until they realized they wouldn't get any information out of her. She wasn't going to give up where my sisters and I were. They must have thought that we weren't even in the house because they lit it on fire... starting with her body."

"How'd you get out?"

I buried my face into his chest against and let out a sob.

"They wouldn't stop screaming. We were hidden in the box that our dad had made. It was resistant to practically everything imaginable except sound. But my dumbass sisters could feel the heat and started screaming for help no matter how hard I tried to keep them quiet."

Fred wrapped his arms around me tighter once again. He understood what that meant, despite me not having said anything.

Our mother had died in vain.

"It wasn't your fault."

"I'd do anything to change what happened," I told him. "Because if my dad had been home or if I'd kept them from screaming or gave us up before they'd killed her… it all could have been different."

"Winters," he consoled. "Everything happens for a reason."

I looked up at him, "Isn't that a Marilyn Monroe quote?"

"Listen," he said, standing up and offering a hand to me as well. "Just because the sex symbol said it, doesn't mean it isn't true.."

I rolled my eyes and let him help me up. We walked up the stairs together, stopping every ten steps to let my body catch up. I leaned against the wall, hacking from the heat in my lungs.

"Don't take this the wrong way," I panted. "This never happened. I don't do the whole, breaking down thing, especially around people."

"Seems like you've been hanging around the wrong people," said Fred thoughtfully.

"Seems like you've got no idea what it's like to be emotionally insecure," I retorted.

"Sometimes you've got to fall apart in order for things to fall back together."

I slapped him over the back of the head, "One, that's not how that quote goes. Two, stop with the Marylin Monroe! She had enough talent to pull off those dumbass quotes. You're just… not sleeping with the American president."

Fred's face turned just pink enough to be seen through the little light we had from the tunnel's torches.

"Either way," he persisted. "You've got people to help you through things like this now. You don't have to be all big and courageous all the time."

"Wat zou het leven zijn als we geen moed hadden om iets te proberen?"

Fred gave me the look of major confusion. "What's that?" he asked. "German?"

"Dutch," I corrected. "It roughly translates to 'what would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?'"

"Vincent van Gogh?" Fred mocked in an awful Dutch accent.

"Why do you know so many Muggle celebrity quotes?" I asked, a smile creeping onto my face.

Fred tapped his wand against the wall, and the exit opened up. He looked at me once more and brushed the pad of his thumb across the last remaining tear on my face.

"You look a little… bloody," he said cautiously. "So don't be surprised if people look at you funny."

I pushed past him into the open corridore.

"Everyone's in class, smart one," I scoffed. I turned to walk backwards in front of him. "You're also avoiding my question. What's up with you knowing Maralyn Monroe and Van Gogh quotes?"

"You're the one that knew the Van Gogh quote," he retorted.

"I said it, you identified," I clarified.

"Muggle Studies," he said nonchalantly.

I chuckled and shook my head. I turned back around to enter the common room.

"What's so funny?" he called after me.

I threw myself onto the empty sofa.

"You've never been in a Muggle Studies class," I stated.

"Who says?"

"I do!" I threw my hands into the air. "I've been in every class you and George have been in since first year. The only electives you've ever taken are Care of Magical Creatures and Divination."

His face redend at this. It was common knowledge between the twins and I that they'd been notably ignorant the five school years before. Not once had my name ever cross their lips and my face was practically lost inside of their dull minds.

"Speaking of Divination," I said. "I'm going to change, and you know, clean my broken face and we're going to show up for our first lesson of the year, because we are good students."

Fred put his hands up defensively, "Wow, Winters. I think you might have the wrong impression of me. I'm hardly even a student, let alone an acceptable one. Most of the professors here don't know my name from their classes, they know my name from destroying things around their classes."

"Awe," I pinched his cheek. "Poor ickle Fred doesn't have a big brain so he goofs around to play off his lack of brain cells."

He grimaced, "I'm smarter than you think."

"We both know that you may be the spokesman of your operations, but George is the brains. You wouldn't survive without each other though. He's socially awkward with you and you fail without him. It's sweet, really."

"That's rich," he smirked. "Come on, we've got a prank to pull."

I groaned as he dragged me out of the common room, still covered in my own blood. He started to explain what his plan was. It took everything in me to play along without totally screwing him over like I would have done to most other people.

Then again, it wasn't a bad prank.

As we reached the entrance to the Divination class, he gave me a leg up to pull down the ladder, and I saluted him before pushing open the trap door and dragging myself onto the floor, groaning in angish.

The class looked at me, mortified. Tralawney clambered over to me, the jingalling of her bangled becoming more obnoxious with the aggressive moment.

"Winters?" said George from a poof by the door.

"Dear girl," screeched Trelawney. "What has happened to you?"

"Moody attacked her!" someone yelled.

"He performed the Cruciatus Curse on her!" Lee added.

Trelawney knelt next to me, taking my hand in her own. She traced the lines of my palms and gasped falling away from me.

"Oh no!" she cried. "You poor, poor girl! Your lifeline takes an abrupt end. It seems that all options have taken dead ends. Your end is near."

There was a sound of wood hitting the floor from down the hall. The sound of a wooden cane.

"Moody's coming," said Angelina Johnson. "He's going to kill her!"

I turned my head just enough to make eye contact with George when the sound stopped.

"The end is here," I gasped.

A hand grabbed my leg that was still hanging from the trapdoor and I was pulled out of the classroom, grasping for something to hold onto. I grabbed the rope of the trapdoor and slammed it closed as I fell into Fred.

Both of us slipped behind a barrier, and I pulled on a clean set of robes from my rucksack. Fred cast a cleaning spell on my face, and the blood fell away. We darted down the hall and to the bottom of the stairs as the trapdoor was pulled open once more and Trelawney and the rest of the class came pouring out of the class.

Fred and I walked up the stairs, staring down at a book very intently.

He looked up to the rest of the students and smiled widely.

"Oh, hello! Sorry we're late. Just having the nicest chat with Professor Moody. Incredible bloke, he is!"

Everyone looked dumbstruck.

I held up the book in our hands, "Gave us this book on fighting off the Unforgivable Curses."

Lee and George looked at each other and then back to us, wide smiles spreading across their faces.

When class was dismissed, Trelawney looked more confused than normal, but the rest of the class seemed to have picked up on the joke by then.

I now walked between the twins willingly, not trying to get away. Fred explained to George how we'd pulled off the prank with the fresh set of robes. Thankfully, for me, he left out the part of me slamming my face on stairs and crying in a tunnel.

"I knew it had to be a prank," said George. "Even before you got pulled back through the door."

"No way!" said Fred. "You saw what Moody did. You had to have believed it just as much as anyone else."

George smirked at me, "I'm not going to lie, you had me for the first part of it. Then Winters winked at me."

Fred elbowed me, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Dumbass! You could have given us up!"

I grabbed him by the ear, "Call me that again and I'll go all Vincent van Gogh on your ass… or ear, more like."

"You're crazy."

"Only for you, Miss. Monroe," I said dreamily. I let go of his ear and slid down the railing of the stairs. "Don't let the wind catch your skirt on the way to Care of Magical Creatures, yeah?"

"What the hell's she on about?" asked Lee.

"Don't worry about it," said Fred, waving me off. "See ya later, Potato Eater!"

I think I almost pissed my pants when Winters came up into the Divination class. I never want to see her so beat up again.

-George Weasley


	7. Because I Struck Out

You guys are boring," I complained.

It was Saturday and all we'd done for over four hours was sit around in the common room while the twins whispered and wrote things down about some money they'd lost. At first when they wouldn't let Lee and I listen to what they were saying, Lee agreed to throw my baseball around with me. After an hour though, Lee had gotten bored and fallen asleep on the floor of the common room. So, I was just laying on the floor next to the table they were sitting at, throwing my baseball into the air and catching it over and over again.

"I finally stop trying to avoid you and now you just sit around and wine about a few galleons. You know Ludo is a con artist. There isn't anything you can do!"

"We never said anything About Ludo Bagman!" Fred said somewhat aggressively.

I flushed. I'd accidentally slipped into their thoughts at some point.

"You talk louder than you think," I lied.

Both twins looked around nervously, seeing if anyone else had overheard what they were talking about.

"Either way, it's more than just a few galleons to us," said George. "It was all of our savings."

"Oh boohoo. We lose things in life. It's a given. You can't sit around and mope about it for the rest of time. Afterall," I locked eyes with Fred. "Everything happens for a reason."

He reached out and caught the baseball I'd just thrown into the air and pointed a finger at me.

"Watch it Van Gogh, that's my line."

George looked between us obviously confused. Then, he shook his head and started wrapping up all the parchment on the table.

"You're right, Winters," he said finally. "What do you want to do?"

I looked at him wide eyed.

"Really?"

George shrugged, looking to Fred for approval. Both of them nodded and I jumped to my feet.

"I'll go get my bat!"

Even though they were apprehensive, Fred, George, and Lee followed me towards the Quidditch pitch. We stopped a few times along the way to collect a few of the other Quidditch players from Gryffindor. The twins convinced Angelina, Alicia, and Katie. Lee asked Harry and Harry brought Ron and Ginny as Hermione didn't care much for sports.

"I can't see how a Muggle game could be that much fun," said Ron. "No magic? How boring."

The others muttered in agreement.

I looked to either side of me where Fred and George were walking.

"It basically revolves around Beaters."

Both of the twins' eyes lit up, and their excited energy immediately made everyone else a bit more excited as well.

"So how does this game work?" Alicia asked me.

"I'm just going to teach everyone the basics," I told them, using my wand to turn some stray rocks into bases. "I'll pitch. Since the twins are used to bats…" I looked between them. "George can bat first."

I tossed George the bat and started to explain the bases, strikes, home runs, and all the other basics of baseball that they needed to know.

Lee was stood behind George, ready to catch the ball when George didn't hit it.

Everyone else was standing on the side, watching to see if George was going to be any good at using a different bat than he was used to.

I took a breath. Everyone was watching me, analyzing me to see what they should do when it was time for them to pitch. I kept my composure, trying not to blush from the attention.

Slowly I drew back and then threw the ball at George. He yelped and jumped away from it as it came at him faster than he'd expected.

"That's not humanly possible! That's just as fast as a bludger!" he yelled at me.

I knew that being a Beater would have prepared him for baseball. It was different though. No broomsticks to focus on and baseballs were remarkably smaller than bludgers.

The biggest difference being that I was completely in charge of the speed and direction of the ball.

"I've been playing since I was nine," I told him. "I've got one of the strongest arms in English Varsity Baseball."

"She's also got a lot of pent up aggression!" said Lee.

I accio'd the ball back to me and made direct eye contact with Lee.

"I'll take it out on you if you don't watch your mouth," I threatened before turning back to George, drawing back to throw again. "Try again."

I almost laughed as he missed the ball and spun almost a full circle from the amount of forced he'd swung with.

"You're not standing correctly," I told him.

"Well, why don't you come and show me how it's done then?" he teased.

"The weight should be on the balls of your feet and your knees should be slightly bent," I told him, striding forward. "Keep your feet a little over shoulder width apart, and put your weight on your back leg. Keep your hands close to your body."

Of course, George found it hysterical to exaggerate every action I instructed him to do. He ended up spreading his legs so far apart that he was in danger of doing the splits, yet still somehow standing on his toes. The base of the bat was practically stabbing him in the belly button.

I gave him a look of disapprovement and stepped behind him.

"You caused this," I groaned.

I kicked his feet closer together and put one hand on his chest, and the other on his lower back to force him to straighten up. Then, I knelt down to adjust his legs, starting with his thigh.

Lee whistled from behind me.

"Getting really close there, Winters," he chortled.

"Not my fault he can't listen to basic instructions," I retorted.

"Okay!" said George. "I got it."

"It's not that difficult to stand correctly, George."

I rolled my eyes and wandered back to the mound of rocks I'd made.

"You know that it's coming at you fast. Keep an eye on the ball. Drive your hips towards the ball and your back knee away from it."

"Come on, Georgy!" Fred yelled. "Put your hips into it!"

Everyone clapped and cheered as I drew back.

He hit it…

Right into the ground.

I sighed as everyone else ran over to pat him on the back and congratulate him.

"You realize you're not supposed to do that, right?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

"What do you mean?" Katie asked. "He hit it!"

"Into the ground," I stated.

George looked completely offended by my statement.

"Did you want me to hit it at you?"

"The goal is to hit it as far as possible so the other team doesn't get you out," I explained. "Like this-"

I threw the ball into the air and hit it with a large crack. We all watched the ball soar across the field and out of eyesight.

"That-" I said. "is how you hit a baseball."

Fred stole the bat from me and demanded me to accio it at him. That was the start of two hours of the girls pitching baseballs at the boys, and the boys throwing the bat at each other's heads to try and knock someone out.

At some point, Ron started complaining that his stomach was growling and Ginny had gotten hit in the shins with the baseball bat, so we all started inside. Ginny rode on Fred's back all the way into the castle as he was the one who hit her with the bat. The remaining girls and I walked a little behind them, exhausted and covered in splinters from wrestling the bat from whoever would get a little too aggressive.

"That was fun, Winters," said Katie.

"Yeah, all this time I always thought you were a weird loner but you're actually really cool," said Alicia.

I did my best to smile at them.

"Thanks?"

Alicia, Angelina, and Katie all went into the Great Hall for dinner, but I stayed behind, going towards the marble staircase to get to the common room.

As I passed the Great Hall, a large popping noise began to sound from the Slytherin table. All of a sudden, Fred, Lee, and then George burst into the Entrance hall, running away from the site of the noises, sniggering as they disappeared up the marble staircase.

McGonagall came running out after them, looking at the empty corridor and then locking angered eyes with me. I sighed, already knowing what was coming.

"Jordan Winters, come with me!" she ordered.

I followed her into the Gryffindor common room without question. The twins and Lee were sat at the table they'd been at earlier in the day discussing the looks on the Slytherin's faces when the firecrackers had started going off.

They blatantly ignored McGonagall's entrance, trying to pretend that she wasn't stalking up to them with a red face and shaking hands.

"Detention," McGonagall yelled. "All four of you."

"All of us?" I cried. "But I didn't do anything!"

"Guilty by association, I suppose. Tomorrow right after dinner. In my office!" She adjusted the hat on her head and did her best to compose herself. "You are aware that we are to guests here in just weeks? I will not have Gryffindor besmirching our house names by pulling childish pranks on other students! Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Professor," said the twins in unison.

Her gaze shifted to Lee. He simply nodded and looked away from her. Then, she looked at me, and I did my best to keep a face that didn't scream, 'But I didn't do anything!'.

"Yes, Professor."

When she'd left the common room I glared at the twins and Lee.

"I'm not really an all out there, in the spotlight kind of person in case you haven't noticed. I wasn't even sure McGonagall knew my name before last year! I have never, ever had detention before."

I ran a shaking hand through my hand and threw myself onto the couch.

"I hate all of you. I honestly do."

"Awe! Don't sound so excited to have detention with us, Winters," Fred said, sitting down next to me and pinching my cheek. "After all, everything happens for a reason."

"Oh you mean like how my fist is about to leave a bruise on your face?" I spat back.

"Don't touch the artwork!" said Fred, motioning at his face.

"I didn't realize people considered ugly, dumb, and crazy art," said Lee.

Fred glared at Lee, "Don't take her side!"

"She's got dirt on me," said Lee nervously.

I grinned.

"Awe, finally. You being a massive piece of work is working in my favor."

"I'll go back to their side," he threatened.

"I'll tell everyone about you and Madeline Cline," I countered.

The twins both looked towards lee in shock.

"Isn't she a seventh year?" George asked.

"What about you and Madeline Cline?" asked Fred.

I looked at Lee, waiting for an answer.

"I'm back on Winters' side," he said sadly.

Both the twins groaned in disappointment.

"Sorry, Freddy," said Lee. "You're still ugly, dumb, and crazy,"

Fred simply stuck his nose in the air and crossed his arms.

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

I tackled him to the floor. Fred held my arms up, but I didn't stop struggling to hit him.

"Stop quoting Marilyn Monroe or I'll put makeup on you in your sleep and take pictures of it to put on the announcements board for everyone to see!"

George pulled me off Fred and Fred moved to lean over me. He started tickling me while George held me down. I started ugly laughing and tears were practically streaming down my face in less than a minute.

"St-Sto-...Stop!" I begged through laughter.

"If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything!" Fred yelled. "Now tell us about Madeline Cline!"

I looked at Lee through teary eyes.

"I'm- I'm sorry!" I told him. "They kissed! Last year. Broom closet. He paid her!"

The twins seemed satisfied enough with my answer and let me go. I finally managed to force breath into my lungs. I leaned against the front of the couch, clutching the stitches in my sides.

"I regret becoming friends with any of you," I gasped.

The twins looked at each other cheekily.

"Fred?" said George.

"Yes, George?"

"I think she just said that we're friends."

"I think you're right, George. Winters called us her friends."

I didn't deny it.

Winters' laugh is so contagious. I think that might be the first time I've ever heard her real laugh.


	8. Because I Threw Weeds

"So Lee," said Fred, grinning. "Have you talked to Madeline recently?"

Lee shot me a glare and then looked back down to his pail of weeds.

"A couple times."

"She slips him little letters and notes at least once a week," I said, scoffing at him.

"Shut up!" he yelled, taking a string of weeds and throwing them at me. I caught them and threw them back at him.

"Awe, is ickle Lee embarrassed that we know about his girlyfriend?" George teased, reaching over to ruffle Lee's dreadlocks.

Lee grimaced and slapped his hand away.

"Don't make me slap you with the weeds!" he grumbled. "And she isn't my girlfriend!"

"Not yet, she isn't," I said. "He's too scared to ask her out because she's older than him."

"Will you stop!" he begged. "She's not my girlfriend, and she's not going to be my girlfriend!"

The twins started laughing but dropped the subject, nonetheless.

We'd been out by the Black Lake for an hour. After dinner was over, McGonagall took us down to Hagrid's hut so he could assign us something for our evening detention.

"I don't wanna make yeh do too much tonight 'cause it's gonna get cold real quick," Hagrid had told us. "So, I'mma give yeh each a couple of pails to fill up with weeds from the banks of the lake. Plannin' to plant some trees down there 'for the tournament and I don't need no weeds killin' 'em off before they even get growin'."

It was nasty work, but we were all grateful that McGonagall had given us to Hagrid rather than Filch.

"What about you, Winters?" asked Fred.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What about me?"

"What's up with the kid you were with at the Quidditch Cup? Boyfriend?"

I choked on a laugh.

"Chai?" I sputtered. "He's my best friend."

"Friends with benefits?" Fred suggested, wiggling his eyebrows as he said it.

"I mean, I just set him up with a kid from my baseball team. Cute kid, a little short for my taste, and also a guy so… let me think… Nope! Definitely not dating my gay best friend."

Fred's ears turned pink when he realized what I'd said.

"What about that kid from Bulgaria?" asked Lee.

"Which one?"

"The one that worked next door to you when you were staying there?" he specified.

"He was a slob."

"What about Petar?" Lee asked, exaggerating the last syllable of his name.

"The less we talk about him, the less I want to break things," I spat.

"That bad, huh?"

"Worse than you'd think."

"I'm confused," said Fred.

"Me too," added George.

"Doesn't matter," I said, shaking my head.

"So you don't have a boyfriend?" Fred clarified.

"Hope not," I snorted. "Unless some guy comes along and forces me to fall in love with him, I'm not gonna willing put myself into a situation where I'm going to get… hurt. People piss me off as much as it is without adding on a layer of emotional instability."

"We've noticed," muttered George.

I threw a muddy weed at him.

"Watch it, Weasel."

"Yo, Winters!" Fred yelled.

I looked up as he chucked some weeds at me. I pulled it away from my skin and glared at Fred's cheeky grin.

"I'm cold, I'm tired, and I'm getting more and more angry as the temperature drops. Do you really want to test my patients right now?" I growled.

Fred put his hands up in surrender before going back to silently working on filling his second pail of weeds.

"I think this is what all of my life mistakes have led up to," I grumbled. "Make some friends, ruin some lives, lose some friends, ruin their lives, accidently murder some people… bam! Here I am. Stuck yanking weeds with three idiots who get high off scaring or injuring people."

"That's rude," Fred murmured.

I threw a pile of weeds at him.

"You know what else is rude?" I asked. "Getting me in trouble for your below par prank."

George shook his head at me, grinning. I glared at him and looked back down into my pail of weeds.

"I don't know how you can smile while pulling weeds," I grimaced.

"It's how I cope with your below par insults without insulting you back," he said cheekily.

I rolled my eyes and flung some mud at him too.

"It was a weak prank anyway," I ranted. "What'd you do? Go down to the kitchen in the middle of the night and ask the elves to fill the Slytherin's rolls with fireworks for you?"

The twins and Lee glanced at each other with looks of great confusion.

"How the hell did you know that?" asked Lee.

I shrugged, looking away from them. I hated that Fred's mind was so open all the time. It was almost like he was talking to me sometimes. Like when he was planning out the prank while working on their letter to Bagman.

"I'd love to see you do better than exploding rolls," said Fred.

"I did better in my first year," I stated.

The twins snorted and continued to shovel.

"You've never pranked anyone," said George. "You said it yesterday. You've never been in detention."

"Because I've never been caught," I said. "Not until you three… I hate all of you, by the way."

Lee nudged me with his elbow.

"You love us."

"I love imagining one of your experiments going wrong," I spat.

"You're really bad at this whole friendship thing," George sneered.

"I don't remember asking for this to happen. If I remember correctly, you forced your friendship on me."

I threw a pile of weeds at George right as he turned to look at me. His face was suddenly covered weeds and mud. He gaped at me while the other two snickered behind him. He threw the weeds at his brother and then threw some more at Lee.

"We didn't throw 'em!" Lee yelped, running away.

George turned to me, a tangle of weeds in his hand.

"Don't you dare!" I yelled, turning away from him and running after Lee.

As we ventured closer to the lake, the ground became softer and slippery. I slowed to get my balance but George once again, hadn't been paying enough attention to stop as well. He slid right into me, almost knocking both of us into the mud. Then he grabbed me, not trying to keep me from falling into the mud, but trying to steady himself.

"You git!" I yelled, pushing him off me.

George stumbled and slid around in the mud for a moment. He reached out and grabbed my arm, forcing me against him to keep him from falling.

Then, he just grinned at me.

I'd much rather say that we just gazed into each other's eyes and that was the beginning of something magical, because what actually happened was far less cliche. Absolutely anything would have been better than watching the mischievous intention fill his eyes before he shoved a pile of weeds into my face.

I gagged and pushed myself away from George. I lost all balance without George for support and started to fall, this time pulling George down with me. He landed in the mud next to me, splashing me with the impact. I started spitting up mud and rolling over to cough it our. George couldn't keep himself from laughing. His laughter carried across the Black Lake and Lee and Fred came running back at the sound.

"Are you okay, Winters?" he asked through weezing laughs.

I grabbed a handful of mud and rolled back over to slap it in his face, but he was one step ahead, already prepared to grab my wrist and fight the mud out of my hand. When all the mud had slipped from my hand, Lee and Fred had found us lying in a thick patch of mud.

"What the hell are you two doing?" asked Fred.

"Having a lie down," said George sarcastically. "Why don't you join us?"

Fred rolled his eyes and moved to help me up, Lee going to help George. The second either of them stepped in the mud, they slid and landing either on top of one of us or close to it. George grunted and shoved Fred off of him and onto me. Lee was lying with his face buried in the mud next to me.

Fred rolled off of me and tried to stand, but his efforts didn't do much besides throw mud in my direction and get him more stuck into it.

"What the hell!" came a booming voice from the edge of the Forbidden Forest. "How did all four o' yeh get stuck in the mud? Yeh're s'posed ter be pulling weeds out over there!"

Hagrid and Fang were bounding towards us. As much as we'd expected it, Hagrid didn't show the slightest big of anger seeing us trying to pull ourselves out of the mud during our detention.

"We had a bit of a-" started Fred.

"Accident?" I suggested.

"Disagreement," added George.

"We tried to help!" said Lee.

"Alrigh', alrigh'! That's enough," Hagrid interrupted. "Lemme get yeh out."

Lucky for us, Hagrid didn't fall into the mud while dragging us onto solid ground. None of us fancied being crushed.

"Thank you, Hagrid," I told him. "Didn't mean to cause you any trouble."

Hagrid simply chuckled and dismissed us back to the castle.

The sun had long set and the chilly evening air had quickly dried the mud to all of our skin and clothes.

I ran up behind one of the twins, not being able to tell them apart from the back and jumped onto one of their backs.

"Excuse you!" George yelled, stumbling forward.

"I don't want to walk anymore," I complained.

"I would like to be warned before you throw off my balance next time," he scolded.

"Boohoo… get better balance next time."

"I could throw you off me right now," George threatened.

"You won't though," I stated.

Even though I was sure he wouldn't dare throw me off of him, I still wrapped my legs around him a little tighter. He finally hooked his hands under my legs and hoisted me up so I was steady. I rested my chin on his shoulder and closed my eyes for a minute as the four of us were completely silent.

I opened my eyes when I could hear the footsteps echoing around the corridor. We were the only ones out because of how late it was. Though it was late, the torches on the walls still burned bright enough for me to see that George's ears were bright red.

"Better not be falling asleep up there," he joked.

"I'm awake," I said, my voice just barely above a whisper.

He tightened his grip on me once again when we started up the staircase. When Lee opened up the passageway that hid behind the curtain, I laid my head down again.

I breathed deeply and was suddenly overtaken by the smell of peppermint. For the first time since school had started back up, my mind was only filled with my own thoughts. It was like the switch that controlled my ability to see into other people's minds had been stuck on for the last month had finally slipped off again. I felt like I was in control of my own mind again.

My stomach dropped when I realized we'd made it to Gryffindor Tower. The second that scent of mint had faded, my mind was back in overdrive and I could hear the last thoughts in Fred's head before he disappeared upstairs.

"Night, Winters," George called, before running up the stairs with Fred and Lee.

"Night," I whispered.

When I got into the dorm's bathroom, I ran a hot shower and did everything I could to scrub away the mud and the anxiety. Even when my skin was raw, and the mud had long been washed down the drain, I still felt an awful nervousness crawling under my skin.

We had Moody's class in the morning.

Winter's eyes change colors whenever she's upset. They never changed today.

-George Weasley


	9. Because I Burned

When Professor Moody had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of us to demonstrate its power and to see whether any of us could resist its effects, everyone seemed dumbstruck.

"But it's illegal, Professor," said a Hufflepuff in the front of the class.

Fred hadn't done much to convince George and Lee to take seats in the back of the class during our next lesson. Neither of them fancied another battle between Moody and I.

"You aren't supposed to use it against another human unless you fancy a trip to Azkaban," agreed Alicia Spinnit.

"He didn't seem to follow that rule well when he put the Cruciatus Curse on Winters," Fred mumbled from my side.

"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto Fred and fixing on him with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way — when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely — fine by me. You're excused. Off you go."

No one had left.

It'd been three lessons of putting the students of my year under the Imperius Curse and Moody wouldn't so much as make eye contact with me.

When he hobbled into the class for the fourth lesson, he told us that we'd be getting through everyone who hadn't had a turn yet. Since he'd been going through everyone by last name, the twins and I were up.

I'd gotten through the last three classes by not even glancing up at the people he was putting the curse on. I allowed myself to slip into Fred or Lee or sometimes George's inner thoughts to keep myself concentrated on anything than what was happening at the center of the room.

It'd learnt a few things about them.

Fred _really_ likes Angelina Johnson.

Lee had been meeting with Madeline Cline after lunch almost every day since the start of term.

George was jealous of Fred because Angelina and him had been flirting for a while and he felt devastatingly alone.

Lee liked Angelina Johnson and had originally used Madeline to cope with the fact that her and Fred had become close.

Fred genuinely cannot understand his potions homework.

Lee pretty much only thought about Madeline.

George uses classes to distract himself from social anxiety.

Lee couldn't decide if he was in love with Madeline or not.

And I was a voyeur creeping in on people's personal thoughts.

I shut my notebook after finding that Fred was admiring Angelina's butt and I didn't feel like tampering my brain with his weird boy thoughts anymore.

"You good?" George asked, propping himself up on the same desk I was sitting on.

I caught myself glaring at Fred with a disgusted look. I chucked a little. He was teasing her now, trying to cop a feel.

"Fred," I grumbled.

George followed my eyes to see Fred with his hand on his teammate's arse.

"Yeah, he does that…" grimaced George. "But they're definitely not in a relationship or anything."

"Definitely not," I agreed sarcastically.

"Hands to yourself, Weasley!" Moody growled.

Fred jumped and moved away from Angelina, his ears turning pink and her dark skin flushed in embarrassment.

"Alright Weasley, you're up."

Fred grinned as he went up, sure that he would be strong enough to not be controlled by the curse. As much as I knew that I couldn't bare to watch, it was as if I couldn't pull my eyes away from Fred and Moody.

I gripped the lip of the desk, trying to find anything else to focus on something else.

"She's freaking out…"

I looked at George. His eyes were on Fred, but they kept shifting towards me.

"What if I just…"

My mind was shifting between what was happening externally and what was happening in George's head.

Fred was imitating a donkey. He was making crazy noises and bucking around the room. Everyone was laughing except for George, Lee, and I. George wasn't laughing because he was having an internal battle over whether or not he could…

His hand suddenly drifted and landed on mine. The pad of his thumb grazed over my skin, trying to calm me down enough for me to stop holding onto the desk like it was the only thing holding me to the Earth.

I looked up to him, his dark eyes studying me.

He gave me a soft smile and slowly moved to lift my hand from the desk and into his.

"You're okay," he assured me.

My other hand released from the desk and I smiled at him.

"Thanks."

"Alright," said Moody. "Other Weasley, you're next."

Before George moved forward into the middle of the classroom, I held his hand a little tighter and whispered, "Say no," into his ear.

He looked quite confused until Moody raised his wand, pointed it at George, and said, "Imperio!"

George was told to do a one man high kick line. His legs flopped around, not sure of what exactly they were supposed to be doing. They tried to stay still and kick at the same time, and the result was George walking around with giant strides like Frankenstein's Monster.

Fred looked at me with an approving smile.

"What'd you tell him to do?"

I shrugged, watching George scuff his feet across the floor and almost falling to his face with the complete lack of control of his limbs.

Moody lifted the curse and George keeled over, trying to get his bearings.

"Mr. Weasley," drawled Moody. "You're aware that you just fought the Imperius Curse?"

The class started to clap until Moody looked around with a murderous expression, making every person stop in terror.

George shrugged, his ears turning pink.

"Well, why don't you go thank Miss. Winters for the useful tips before she comes up here and shows what a little practice will have you looking like?"

I felt everything in my body start to shut down.

"Haven't you used me as a demonstration already?" I asked in a panic.

"Yeah!" yelled Fred. "Come on, cut her a break."

"I said," growled Moody, thumping closer to me. "Get over here."

I looked at Fred, Lee, and then George for help. Fred moved to stand next to me and pressed a hand to my back, helping me move forward.

"Just get it over with," he told me. "If something goes way wrong, I've got fireworks in my pocket."

I choked out a small laugh and nodded. I made my way into the circle where Moody was standing. George moved to stand as close to me as he possibly could while still standing in the circle of students around us, and Fred and Lee moved to join him. I took a strong grasp of my wand under the sleeve of my robe and prepared myself.

"Imperio."

I remembered the first time that cursed was cast over me. It was the most wonderful feeling I'd ever felt. Every thought and worry in his head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. But, I'd learned the hard way that awful things happen because of that wonderful feeling.

Now, I felt nothing but an itch under my skin. An anxiety of unknowing what could happen if I didn't take control.

I pointed my wand back at him, hardly hearing whatever command he was telling my body to do. I cast Expelliarmus silently and Moody's wand landed in my hand. He thumped his cane on the floor and the hand holding his wand felt as if it had just burst into flames.

I dropped his wand and stumbled back into Lee, clutching my hand. Scorch marks were spreading across my flesh and blisters were already starting to appear.

"Weasleys," Moody barked, his magical eye rolling over to the twins while his normal eye stayed fixed on me. "Take her Pomfrey."

Fred took me around the waist and forced me out of the classroom. Lee and George walked closely behind me, presumably to keep Moody away from me if he did try to attack again.

"What the hell did he do to you?" Fred shouted, taking my hand gently and observing it.

"The core of his wand," I started. "Probably made of dragon heartstring. He must have put a spell on it that the dragon comes back and burns whoever he doesn't want to touch it."

"Why the hell do you know that?" Lee asked.

"Remus' wand core is unicorn hair. Since unicorns protect against sickness and disease, he put a spell on it to protect him from poisoning."

"That's something he's got to be afraid of?"

"Do you know how many people would love to poison a werewolf?" I shot back. "Trust me, it's a lot of people."

I turned up the stairs to the common room, while they continued towards the other side of the school.

"Where are you going?" George yelled. "You've got to go to the Hospital Wing."

"All I need is Murtlap Essence," I told them. "I keep some in my trunk."

"Of course she does," said the twins under their breath.

"I normally keep it in my backpack, but I took it out after I…" I trailed off.

Fred and I made eye contact and had some kind of internal conversation. He knew that I'd used it after I fell and hit my face on the stairs in the passageway.

"Dropped your baseball on your face?" he suggested.

"Yeah!" I agreed hastily.

When we got into the common room, I hurried to my dorm and tucked my hand inside of my robes so I wouldn't knock it on anything. I didn't want them to know that it hurt more than just any burn. I wasn't even sure that the Murtlap Essence was going to work on whatever kind of burn that I had.

"Hurry up, Winters!" one of the twins yelled. "I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry!" I yelled back, grabbing the bottle and meeting them back in the common room. Fred was standing next to the portrait hole with his arms crossed and a scowl across his face. "Awe is Freddie hungry?" I cooed.

When we'd reached the Entrance Hall, we found Professor Flitwick and Professor Dumbledore hanging a sign on the wall.

Dumbledore's eyes drifted towards us and he smiled brightly.

"What are you four doing out of class? Shouldn't you be with Professor Moody right now?"

"I got a little injured, so they were told to follow me to get some Murtlap Essence," I told him, pulling my hand from the inside of my robes to show him the welts and scorch marks.

"Well, I'm happy to say that the upside to your injury is that you will be the first students to read our marvelous announcement!" beamed Dumbledore. He clapped his hands as Flitwick finished hanging the sign and the two of them walked away from us without another word.

The four of us stepped to stand in front of the sign and Lee started to read aloud:

TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT

The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early. Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.

"A week away!" Fred cried. "We've gotta find out who this unbiased judge is quick or we're not going to have time to figure out how to fix our age to the requirement."

The twins and Lee started to talk about their various plans and ideas for what seemed like the millionth time. I rolled my eyes and made my way into the Great Hall for lunch. My hand was throbbing and swollen now. It was getting almost impossible to move my fingers and everything that brushed it felt like one hundred bees attacking me at one time.

I poured some Murtlap Essence into a bowl at the Gryffindor table and dipped my hand into it. Like I'd expected, it did help with some of the blisters, but the pain itself didn't go away.

"It's hurting more than you're telling us," said George as he sat down next to me.

I could feel the heat creeping onto my face. I looked around for anyone who might be listening. Fred and Lee had gone to the other side of the table to spread out some papers on a clear space and besides them, we were still the only people in the Great Hall.

"It's far less than a pleasant experience," I admitted. "I'm starting to fear the possibility of my hand falling off."

"Let me see," he said softly, holding out his hand.

Against my better judgement, I took my hand from the Essence and rested it atop his.

"Never in the last five years have I ever suggested this to anyone," he started. "but, I think you should tell Dumbledore what Moody is doing to you."

"I- I can't," I choked out. I shook my head and tried to pull my hand back, but George used his other hand to hold on to my arm. "George… bad things have happened to my family… to me. There's a reason my sisters both live with the Malfoys and I live in an orphanage. There's a lot of reasons why I'm like this… and I can't tell anyone about it. I'm sorry I just-"

"Hey, hey…" George shushed me. "If you won't- can't go to anyone, let me help. You don't have to tell me a single thing, but I can promise you that I'm all ears if you ever want to talk."

He let go of my arms as a sort of peace offering. He was offering me a chance to leave if I wanted to, but I left my hand on his.

He smiled in relief when I didn't move.

"Right now, I think we should go down to the Green Houses to see if I can sneak some Dittany for your hand. Fred and I have had a lot of accidents, so I'm pretty good at cooking up a good restorative Dittany potion."

"Thank you," I whispered.

George lifted my hand up to his mouth and kissed my swollen knuckles.

"Whatever you need, Winters."

Winters is so strong, but she's sometimes she's so unapologetically fragile. I think that might just be the definition of a badass.

-George Weasley


	10. Because I Pretend

When we went down to breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth of October, we found that the Great Hall had been overly decorated during the night.

I followed Fred and George to the end of the table and sat a little ways away from them at their request.

This had been happening for the last week. Every morning, Lee would disappear to go find Madeleine and I ate breakfast at least three feet from the twins so they could angrily discuss what they were going to do to Ludo Bagman when they finally got their hands on him.

I was quite disgruntled about not being allowed to help, so I decided that I'd just sit with my journal and write down every thought that drifted my way. It was like my version of a silent middle finger for being left out.

Before I'd gotten anything written down that morning, Harry, Ron, and Hermione came into the hall, making their way to sit down beside Fred and George.

"It's a bummer, all right," George was saying gloomily to Fred.

"But if he won't talk to us in person, we'll have to send him the letter after all. Or we'll stuff it into his hand. He can't avoid us forever," grumbled Fred.

"Who's avoiding you?" asked Ron, sitting down next to them.

"Wish you would," said Fred, looking irritated at the interruption.

I snorted a laugh. George glared at me for eavesdropping, so I forced my attention back down to my morning soup.

"What's a bummer?" Ron asked George eagerly.

Apparently, I wasn't alone in wanting to be let into their plans.

"Having a nosy git like you for a brother," spat George.

"Don't worry, Ron," I said. "They do the same thing to me."

"But I'm their brother!" he whined.

"Sadly," said Fred under his breath.

At this, Ron stopped trying to invade and looked sadly down at his eggs.

"You two got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet?" Harry asked. "Thought any more about trying to enter?"

"I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen but she wasn't telling," said George bitterly. "She just told me to shut up and get on with transfiguring my raccoon."

"Which you never did," I added.

"Wonder what the tasks are going to be?" said Ron thoughtfully. "You know, I bet we could do them, Harry. We've done dangerous stuff before. . . ."

"Not in front of a panel of judges, you haven't," said Fred. "McGonagall says the champions get awarded points according to how well they've done the tasks."

"Who are the judges?" Harry asked.

"Well, the Heads of the participating schools are always on the panel," said Hermione, and everyone looked around at her, rather surprised. "Because all three of them were injured during the Tournament of 1792, when a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on the rampage."

She noticed us all looking at her and said, with what I had come to realize was her usual air of impatience that nobody else, except for maybe me, had read all the books she had, "It's all in Hogwarts, A History. Though, of course, that book's not entirely reliable. A Revised History of Hogwarts would be a more accurate title. Or A Highly Biased and Selective History of Hogwarts, Which Glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the School."

"What are you on about?" said Ron, though everyone else already knew what was coming.

Sometimes it was hard to listen to Ron speak when he didn't understand something. He was so dense when it came to most things. It shocked me a little every time I realized that him and the twins, two of the secretly most observant people I'd ever met, were actually related.

"House-elves!" said Hermione.

I threw my head into my hands and breathed out a small, "Here we go again."

"Not once, in over a thousand pages, does Hogwarts, A History mention that we are all colluding in the oppression of a hundred slaves!"

Even though everyone around her seemed to wish they were listening to anything that wasn't her rant, she didn't seem to notice.

"You do realize that your sheets are changed, your fires lit, your classrooms cleaned, and your food cooked by a group of magical creatures who are unpaid and enslaved?" she kept saying fiercely.

She never once made eye contact with me after the night she's started shaking her stupid box of S.P.E.W. badges under my nose, insisting that I become an activist, and I'd threatened to take the box and chuck it out of Gryffindor Tower if she came close to me with it again.

They others didn't have the same luxury as I did.

Ron was staring at the ceiling, doing his best to tune his friend out. Fred was shredding the fat off of his strips of bacon. Harry stared into his reflection in a jug of milk.

George, however, leaned in toward Hermione.

"Listen, have you ever been down in the kitchens, Hermione?"

"No, of course not," said Hermione curtly. "I hardly think students are supposed to —"

"Well, we have," said George, cutting her off. "Loads of times, to nick food. And we've met them, and they're happy. They think they've got the best job in the world —"

"That's because they're uneducated and brainwashed!" Hermione began hotly.

"Oh my god!" I finally yelled. "Do you ever shut up?"

Her face flushed red.

"I'm just trying-"

"Trying is for spitters, Granger," I barked. "No one likes a spitter. Swallow what you get or die alone."

While Harry and Ron looked utterly confused at my analogy, Fred and George were doubled over in laughter at my blowjob joke.

Before Hermione could say anything else, the owls came swooping in with post. I turned back to my soup in aggravation until a tiny Sooty Owl dropped a massive basket in front of me.

"What the hell?" I yelped, helping to untie my bird from the basket.

Attached to the handle was a note that said,

Didn't want to distract you from the tournament so I asked that everyone send your gifts to me so I could make sure they got there a day early. Hope you don't mind.

Love, Remus

"You've got to be kidding," I grumbled, searching through the basket and looking at the six packages, each with a letter attacked. My owl hooted angrily at me until I fed her some eggs and let her drink from a jug of milk. "Sorry, Bagel. Thanks for traveling so far. Go take a nap, okay?"

"Your owl's name is Bagel?" Fred asked, scooting down to sit in front of me.

"Oh now you want to talk to me?" I retorted.

"Hey, don't be like that," he whined. "I'm sorry, we just don't want to drag anyone else into it."

I shrugged and pulled the basket into my lap so that the twins would stop staring at it.

"The kids at my orphanage named her and now she won't answer to anything else," I mumbled. "I- uh, think I left my backpack in my dorm," I mumbled. "I'm gonna go get it. See you in Herbology."

I was eternally grateful that the twins didn't try to push for more details or follow me back to Gryffindor Tower.

Especially since I left the Great Hall carrying the basket and my backpack.

"What is that, Jordan?" said a set of shrill voices when I was halfway up the Marble Staircase.

I turned to meet my sisters' angry grey eyes.

"Nothing," I said, shoving the basket away.

"You've gotten gifts?" laughed Jet. "From who?"

"Probably her little squib boyfriend," chortled Jasmine.

"Have you gotten anything?" I shot back.

"Yes, actually."

"Lucius and Narcissa sent us boxes and boxes of sweets a few days ago," Jasmine gloated.

"That explains the bloating," I stated.

Both of them moved to cover their stomachs in insecurity.

"And Remus never sent you anything?" I asked.

"He did, but we threw them away. Why would we want anything from that filthy half-breed?" Jet spat.

"He's your-" I sucked the word back into my throat before they even hit my tongue. "God-father. You know he doesn't have the money to waste on you throwing away whatever he gave you."

They both laughed and continued up the stairs.

"Sucks to be unhireable, I guess."

By the time our half day had finished, there was a pleasant feeling of anticipation in the air that day. When everyone had dropped their things off in the common rooms (The twins, Lee, and I, wanting to be some of the first into the entrance hall, had dropped ours into the passageway.

The Heads of Houses were already ordering their students into lines by the time we arrived.

"Weasley, straighten your hat," Professor McGonagall snapped at Ron. "Winters, where in your cloak?"

The twins looked at me quite confused. They obviously hadn't noticed that I was wearing nothing but my robes and although, they'd dropped their bags in the passageway, my backpack was still thrown across my back.

"I don't have one, Professor," I said quietly. "I'm fine in the cold, though."

She pursed her lips and thought for a moment.

"I suppose your right. Keep her warm, Weasleys. Now, follow me, please," said Professor McGonagall. "First years in front . . . no pushing. . . ."

We all filed down the steps and lined up in front of the castle. It was a cold, clear evening. It was hard to tell if the surrounding people were shivering from the cold or from anticipation.

I was completely still, staring out into the Black Lake.

"Nearly six," said Ron from a little way ahead of us. "How d'you reckon they're coming? The train?"

"I doubt it," said Hermione.

George chuckled at me when I shot her a silent glare when she started running her mouth again.

"Why don't you like her?" Fred asked.

"You do?" I retorted.

"I don't mind her. I think she's smart," admitted George.

"That's the problem," I grumbled. "People who know they're smart want everyone else to know they're smart and that pisses me off."

"So you're not smart, then?" George asked.

"I'm more than just a walking textbook. I'm street smart, Weasley. I learned a while ago that when you run your mouth like she does you a million times more likely to get punched."

"You've been punched a lot, eh?" chuckled Fred.

"That's why the bridge of my nose faces three different directions."

"No it doesn't," said George, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him. His eyes trailed down my nose and then flickered up to meet mine. "I guess it does…"

I pulled my head away and forced myself to look somewhere other than at George.

"Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!" called Dumbledore from a few rows behind us.

"Where?" said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.

"There!" yelled a sixth year Ravenclaw, pointing over the forest.

"What is it?" Fred asked.

He and Lee started to discuss the possibilities of what Beauxbaton could be coming to the school in. I didn't even bother looking into the sky.

George swayed a little and purposefully bumped shoulders with me to get my attention.

"You've been sad since breakfast," he said quietly so that no one around us could hear. "Is it really Hermione bugging you?"

"Yeah, she pisses me off," I spat, still staring at the lake. "She doesn't stop talking about things she knows nothing about."

"The house elves you mean?"

"Enslaved, brainwashed, tortured. She doesn't know the first thing about what it means to be any of those things."

"Winters…" he started. "You're shivering. Take my cloak-"

"No, George," I said, finally looking at him. "I'm shaking because I'm angry. I'm so angry that people like her get to be so blissfully ignorant without consequences, while I have to…"

"Continuously cope with scars from your past?" he finished for me. "Because you can personally define every word she's using without a clue of what they truly stack up to."

"I was just going to say because I have to pretend to be normal, but that works too."

He grinned a little.

"For what it's worth, Winters, I think you're way smarter than Granger. But, just because your smart, doesn't mean I can't tell that you're freezing your arse off."

I blushed a little as he wrapped an arm around me, pulling me into his cloak.

"Remember when you said to give you until October 31st to figure me out?" I asked him.

"Like it was yesterday," he said, watching as the girls from Beauxbaton ran past us and into the castle.

"You've got one more day. Still working on that?"

He suddenly shoved his hand into my pocket and pulled my baseball out. He held it high above my head and forced me to wrestle it out of his hand and hold it tightly against my chest out of fear of it being stolen again.

"Not yours!" I barked. "Bad George."

"Well, as of that bit of aggression, I've only got one more experiment, Winters. Prepare to be figured out by the end of tomorrow," he said happily.

Who knew that Hermione Granger was going to be such a key role in me figuring Winters out?

-George Weasley


	11. Because I Knew Viktor

After all the delegates from Beauxbaton had made it into the castle, I forced George to turn and watch the lake with me. While many of the other students were staring up at the sky for Durmstrang's horse drawn carriage, I had been previously informed of how exactly they were planning on getting there.

There was a sudden loud and oddly eerie noise drifting toward us from out of the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed.

I nudged George and pointed to the massive bubbles surfacing at the Black Lake. He nudged Fred in turn and Fred pointed it out to Lee.

Students were looking around for the source of the noise, but no one had quite figured out where it was coming from.

"The lake!" yelled Lee, pointing down at it. "Look at the lake!"

From our position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they had a clear view of the bubbling black surface of the water. Waves were now washing over the muddy banks, and then, out in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake's floor.

Slowly, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. 2A few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank.

The silhouettes of the Durmstrang delegates could be seen getting off of the ship. All of them were built like mountains, even hiding under the cloaks of fur, you could see the strength that most of them possessed. Even the few girls that had been brought along, although gorgeous, had similar body structures to the boys.

Karkaroff marched in front of the group, dressed in his usual sleek cloak.

He forced me into a staring match as he made his way to Dumbledore. His eyes didn't flicker from mine as he marched closer and closer to where I was standing. I shrunk back into George as he drew closer. He wrapped his cloak around me a little more, obviously thinking that I was getting colder as darkness fell upon us.

The moment his eyes finally shifted, it was like his personality had shifted as well. He was suddenly presenting everyone with his best fake smile, showing off his yellowed and decaying teeth.

"Dumbledore!" he called heartily as he walked up the slope. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore replied.

When he reached Dumbledore, he shook hands with both of his own.

"Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle. "How good it is to be here, how good. Viktor, come along, into the warmth," he called out.

Everyone's attention was suddenly on the young Quidditch player. He didn't seem bothered by the attention, as he never really seemed to have much of a reaction to anything that happened to him.

"You don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold," said Karkaroff.

As Viktor got closer to me, the corners of his lips turned up in the slightest smile. He winked at me.

Every girl in my vicinity began speculating over which of them he was winking at, and Fred was shaking Lee in excitement that the Viktor Krum had just winked at him.

"Am I crazy or were you the one he winked at?" whispered George into my ear.

I simply shrugged and looked towards the rest of the Durmstrang students.

Some of them looked towards me, others towards my sisters, contemplating whether they were seeing double.

"Jo," said a tall boy who'd stopped in front of me. He made an attempt to take my hand in greeting, but I backed away, my back pressing against George's chest. "Lovely to see you again."

"try to touch me again, Alexandrov," I growled, growing angry just seeing his face. "And I'll break your arm again."

He grinned at me.

"Same as ever," he said lowly.

"Better without you, I'd like to think," I spat back.

"Alexandrov!" Kackaroff barked. "Get inside."

"Yes, professor," he said, following his headmaster inside.

"Who the hell was that?" asked Fred.

"Petar Alexandrov," answered Lee, glaring at Alexandrov's back.

"The worst thing that ever happened to me," I muttered.

As we made our way into the castle and then to the Great Hall, people all around us were trying to find anything that Viktor could sign for them. I grimaced as a girl pushed past me, lipstick in one hand and her hat in the other.

"Viktor!" she cried. "Sign my hat!"

Lee chuckled at me and grabbed my arm to get me out of the way of a stampede of fourth year Hufflepuffs, who were rushing towards the Slytherin table where Durmstrang were settling.

"Careful, Winters. That vein in your forehead might pop," he teased.

I slapped him in the back of the head and took a seat next to him and the twins. I looked towards Viktor to see his unamused expression staring straight ahead of him as Malfoy and both of my sisters appeared to be talking his ear off.

All the Durmstrang students around him seemed fascinated by their surroundings, much contrasted by the students from Beauxbaton that were looking around like they expected rats to start running across the floor at any moment.

Fred looked to Angelina, who was sitting next to him, their fingers intertwined under the table.

"What do you think? Those girls from Beauxbaton are gorgeous, aren't they?" he teased.

She pulled her hand away from him and grabbed her plate with the threat of hitting him over the head with it.

"Don't test my patients, Weasley."

He put up his hands in defense and slowly reached for her plate to set it back on the table.

"Only kidding, Angelina. I swear!"

After all the guests had been seated, Dumbledore moved to stand at the front of the hall, which silenced everyone in seconds.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts, and most particularly, guests," said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable. The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast. I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

When the food appeared, there was a new array of foreign food littering the tables. The younger kids looked utterly repulsed by some of it, while the sixth and seventh years dipped into some of the more exciting dishes tentatively.

"Oh my god," I said breathlessly.

"What?" asked Fred, looking around nervously.

"Gyuvech."

"Guyva-what?" asked George.

"Just, pass me that clay bowl," I demanded.

It wasn't easy to miss the only bowl on the table that wasn't gold. It was a beautiful clay bowl filled with a soup that was the only thing I loved more than potato soup.

"You're going for something other than potato soup?" asked Lee. "Honestly, I'm shocked. I don't think I've ever seen you eat anything else besides chocolate."

"You can't take the whole bowl!" scolded George as I dipped a large spoon in and started to take a bite.

"Anyone else want any of this?" I asked the people surrounding me. No one had even noticed that I'd taken it. "Guess it's mine then."

"What's up with your obsession with soup?" George asked me.

"I couldn't stomach solids for a longtime," I said through a mouthful of soup. "Soup was all that I could eat and my mom used to make us potato soup when Jet, Jasmine, and I were little, so I've always loved it."

The twins and Lee started to talk to leave me alone to my soup. I was aware of how crazy I must have looked. I was one single person with a clay bowl bigger than my head, shoveling soup into my mouth like I hadn't eaten in months.

"I see you never lost a taste for Gyuvech," said a rumbling voice from in behind me.

Everyone sitting in front of me was staring at me in disbelief as Viktor stood behind me, a small smile on his face.

"You taught me well," I told him.

Viktor kissed my hand in greeting and I swear that in those few moments, not a single person around me moved.

"I have to admit to you," he said sadly. "Your sisters are not the most pleasant people to be around. I don't think I ever heard either of them stop talking."

I laughed a little.

"Trust me, I'm aware of how insufferable they can be."

He pulled something out of his pocket and placed a small box in my hand.

"I vould like to ask you not to open this until tomorrow. We've passed through every generation of women in my family for centuries, but as I'm the only child, it's only fitting that we gift it to you."

I smiled down at the box.

"Thank you, Viktor," I said quietly. "Now, you should head back. Kackaroff will be on my back if I keep you for too long."

"I vill see you soon, then, Jo?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Most definitely."

As Viktor walked away, I turned back to the table to see almost every set of Gryffindor eyes on me.

"Mind your own business," I spat.

"No no no no," said Fred, "you've got to at least explain to us how you know Viktor Krum."

"I spent a summer with him and his family when I was younger," I said, shrugging. "We've stayed close ever since."

"When you've both put your eyes back in," said Hermione briskly, noticing that most of the table was listening to me speak. "You'll be able to see who's just arrived."

She was pointing up at the staff table. The two remaining empty seats had just been filled. Ludo Bagman was now sitting on Professor Karkaroff's other side, while Mr. Crouch, Percy's boss, was next to Madame Maxime.

"George," said Fred, frantically grabbing at George to get his attention. "Do you see who I see?"

"Ludo Bagman," George breathed. "Oh, just wait until we get our hands on his stupid fat neck."

Although they would have liked to, the twins didn't have time to fume because the feast was over before they knew it. Dumbledore stood once again, and the anticipation grew thick throughout the hall.

"The moment has come," said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

Though most of the hall clapped for Bagman, the twins and Lee booed for him without much notice. Both of their faces were red with the anger that had been pent up since the Quidditch World Cup.

"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament." Dumbledore continued. "And they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."

"Oh, get on with it already," said George anxiously.

"Now," said Dumblefore. "The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch."

Filch hobbled towards Dumbledore carrying a massive wooden chest.

"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman, and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways. Through their magical prowess, their daring, their powers of deduction, and, of course, their ability to cope with danger."

The twins grinned at each other at this.

"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Dumbledore went on calmly. "One from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

The unveiling of the Goblet was probably the most exciting thing that had happened since the delegates had arrived, yet not a single person breathed until Dumbledore started speaking again.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said Dumbledore. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete."

"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," said Dumbledore, his eyes flashing towards Fred and George. "I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line. Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion."

Dumbledore's face twisted into a smile once again.

"Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all."

"An Age Line!" Fred Weasley said, his eyes glinting, as they all made their way across the Hall to the doors into the entrance hall. "Well, that should be fooled by an Aging Potion, shouldn't it? And once your name's in that goblet, you're laughing — it can't tell whether you're seventeen or not!"

I rolled my eyes at this but didn't say anything.

Him and George would do anything if it meant breaking the rules. Even if they knew that they would surely get caught in the act.

"I saw that look you gave us, Winters," said George. "Tell me, do you have any better ideas? I mean, you'll be trying to enter with us, won't you?"

I scoffed.

"I most certainly will not. You say you've figured me out, yeah? Well, tell me, Weasley. Where in my do I scream, 'I want eternal glory!'? Because when you find it, please let me know."

I jumped onto his back, as Fred and Lee lead us up to our passageway to grab our things.

"To be honest, George," I said, though only he could hear me over the chatter of the rest of the school. "If you want to make an aging potion that you think'll actually work, I have no doubt that you of all people will get pretty damn close."

He blushed in embarrassment, but thanked me nonetheless.

Little did he know, through the fog of his thoughts, I was laying the groundwork for the best aging potion I'd ever learned.

But, for the twins' sake, I was hoping it wouldn't work.

I'm not sure who this Petar Alexandrov guy is, but I sure as hell don't like him.

-George Weasley


	12. Because I Couldn't Help

"I'm coming in!"

"No, you're not!"

"Wanna bet?"

It was a fight of strength. Me against Fred and Lee.

"George, hurry up!" Lee grunted.

"No!" I cried through the door. "You're going to blow yourself up!"

"It's your potion!" said George from deep inside the boy's dormitory. "If it blows me up, that's on you!"

"Let us do this, Winters!" said Fred.

"No! It's a bad idea. Dumbledore drew the age line himself. It's not going to be fooled by a stupid age potion. You're going to get yourselves in trouble if you don't die first."

"We need this, Winters!" said Fred, the playful fighting tone suddenly gone from his voice and the pressure against the door dropped by half.

"Fred!" cried Lee, letting go of the door as well. "You can't just leave me like that."

I fell through the now open door and onto the messy floor of the twins' and Lee's dorm.

"Let me know if you're going to stop fighting next time," I groaned, scooping myself up from the floor. I look a quick mental map of dorm layout.

It was just as messy as I thought it might be. The instinct of a teenage boy is to make things as messy as possible, after it. Though the mess made it almost impossible to tell where the floor was at some parts, it was still easy for me to tell the four-poster of each boy.

Muggle football players and famous African American athletes decorated Lee's area of the room. His family displayed on his night stand and his muggle clothes sprawled across the foot of his bed.

Fred had a picture of him and all of his siblings pinned above his headboard and his satchel laying open atop his trunk. Inside no books spilled out, but piles of trick sweets and blueprints for their next pranks. That's part of the reason I knew it was his over George's.

George was just as messing, but his mess mainly consisted of potions books and ingredients and things that proved his intelligence rivalled his twins and won by a long shot. He was the brains of the operation. Fred might have been more charismatic, but he's never let you know that he may have been good at transfiguration but the simplest potions would stump him.

I forced my attention away from the boy's beds and onto the display of stolen ingredients and bubbling cauldron in the middle of the floor.

George was hunched over it, forcing his brain to remember the potion I'd forced into him the night before.

"You don't understand what it's like," George muttered, dropping the wooden spoon he was using to stir the potion. "What it's like to see your family struggle every year to put your siblings through school and then have to be another burden as soon as you're added into the situation. You could never understand."

I snorted a laugh and sat cross-legged in front of George and the potion.

"I don't not wear a cloak when it's cold because I think it makes me look tough. I do it because I don't own a cloak. Never have."

A look of sudden guilt was passed between the boys.

"Everything I own is thirty, forty, a hundred and forty years old. Everything I own is what they found in the house my mother died in. Things that got moved from there to the orphanage I live in. I know what it's like to need money. I promise you that. This isn't the way to get it."

Fred let out a loud sigh and plopped down next to me. He wrapped a long arm around me and much to my disagreement forced me into a hug.

"You know we know you care about us and you know we care about you too, Winters. Never would have thought you were any kind of poor. That's just another reason you're cooler than anyone thinks. You just push through all of the crap in life."

"Bold of you to assume anyone thinks I'm any kind of cool anyway," I grunted, forcing Fred off of me.

He just scoffed.

"We're still gonna do it, Winters," he said cautiously, looking between the other boys for approval. A grin spread across his face. "In case you haven't noticed, we're a bit reckless when it comes to most things. Now if you wouldn't mind telling us what is wrong with this potion you gave us."

I sighed and forced a frown.

"Fine! Whatever."

I moved to sit next to George, and together, we spent the next hour making the most powerful ageing potion I knew.

"So," he said quietly after Lee had gotten into the shower and Fred had gone to the common room to bother Angelina.

"So?" I mocked.

"I told them you wrote the potion down for me," he said matter-a-factly.

I looked down at the scatter of rats tails in front of us, determined not to make eye contact.

"I did," I lied.

"I can't find the parchment," he said, an edge growing in his voice. "And yet I still remembered every ingredient."

"You've got a gift for potions. Comes natural to you, I-"

"Jordie," he cut me off.

"Don't call me-"

"Jordie?" he teased. "How about… Jordan. Jordan Winters. I looked for your name in the Legilimens Registry."

"I didn't even know that was a thing…" I muttered.

"Probably because most people don't know that it is," he said, a sudden twang of pride in his voice.

George moved to his trunk and pulled out three different books.

"In most textbooks that talk about wizards with natural or acquired gifts, the back of the book has a constantly updating registry that's linked to the actual registry at the Ministry of Magic. Like Anigmagus," he said, opening one of the books to the back. "List of all registered Animagus. Minerva McGonagall, tabby cat, square markings around eyes."

"What's your point?" I asked nervously.

"I found four registries in the library. Animagus, Metamorphmagus, Magical Beasts. That's where it got interesting. They divide the Magical Beasts registry into sections. Mainly Vampires and Werewolves, though. I was looking through the Werewolves and I noticed that some of the lines were empty aside from the word," he turned the book to face me and pointed to an empty line in the registry. "Protected."

"What's that got to do with anything?" I pried.

"People under the legal age can't have their names shown in any registries. Even then, in certain positions in the government, some jobs, and sometimes with enough money in a family to pay off the Ministry, some people's names will never show up to anyone who doesn't work in the Ministry, therefore never showing up in any textbooks. It's a way to keep them safe, or to hide secrets they don't want anyone else to know."

"Fascinating," I grumbled, stirring the potion. "I don't see what this has anything to do with-"

"Legilimans," he said, grinning wildly. "Most of the textbook talks about the path most wizards take to become a skilled Legilimans, but the deeper you get into the book, the weirder it gets. It starts saying protected over some more recent registered Legilimans and then it says this:

"Though the skill of Legilimency may be learned as most other skills of the magical world are, there are also rare cases of natural born Legilimans. In the years of the Wizarding War, natural born Legilimans were taken hostage by Death Eaters. They would try and force information out of people the Dark Lord felt might hold things valuable to his case. It wasn't until three years after the war was over that a law was passed, protecting every natural born Legilimans from being publicly listed in registries to protect from the forces of the Dark Lord."

"All of that to say what?" I asked. "That even if I was some kind of Legilimens, which I'm not, that you wouldn't be able to find me?"

"The one thing that it tells you is the birthday and the gender of anyone protected by the registry."

"So?"

"So that means that if I can find your birthday, I can find if a female Legilamens was born on that day and if so, I have found your secret."

"Why do you care so much?" I growled.

"Because I promised you I'd figure you out."

"By today," I reminded.

"Lucky for you, I've got a plan," he gloated.

"Yeah…" I groaned. "Lucky me. I'm so excited for you to stalk me all day to win a bet that's got nothing on it."

"I told you it wouldn't work," I scolded.

"You set us up!" Fred groaned.

I gaped at his bearded face.

"I set you up?" I howled. "I helped you, did everything I could, and I set you up?"

I crossed my arms and shook my head in disbelief.

"Lay off her Freddy," said George, scratching at his long white beard. "She was just trying to help."

"Just trying to give herself a better chance at being a champion, more like," Fred grumbled.

Lee grabbed me around the waist before I could go for Fred's throat.

"How dare you!" I screeched. "I'm not even seventeen yet, you git. You honestly think that's what I was doing? I cannot believe how bloody ignorant you're being."

Madam Pomfrey started on Fred's beard before he could get another word out.

"Unbelievable," I muttered, forcing Lee away from me and shooting Fred a glare before turning to leave the Hospital Wing.

"Winters," George whined as I marched past his bed. He reached out and grabbed my wrist, forcing me to stay where I was.

"What?" I yelled. "You want to accuse me of something too?"

He let go of my wrist and moved over to make room for me on his bed.

"Why don't you get out your little muggle ball out of your pocket and hang out until we can leave. I don't want to be alone around Fred while he's pissed off."

"You've got Lee," I spat.

"Where's Lee, then?"

"What do you mean? He's right-" I turned to point to where Lee had stood seconds before. "Where the hell did he go?"

"Madeline," said Fred, refusing to look at me.

I groaned and forcefully sat at the end of George's bed. He smiled at me through the thick hair tangled around his mouth.

"Don't look at me like that," I warned.

He just smiled bigger and nudged me with his foot.

"You just eliminated September and October from the months your birthday could be in," he told me gleefully.

"And that leaves ten more months," I told him in a tone of mock glee.

"November 1st?" he asked.

"No."

"November 2nd?"

"No."

"Is it in November?"

"Nope."

"December?"

"No."

"January?"

"Not even close?"

"February?"

"I wouldn't tell you if you got it right."

"So it's in February?"

"No!"

"March?"

"Your turn, George," said Madam Pomfrey moving from Fred's now empty bed to his. Fred stormed out of the Hospital Wing clean faced and still angry, and George frowned under his beard.

"Tell me, Winters," he begged.

"Absolutely not."

"Why are you so reluctant to tell me if you've got nothing to hide?" he questioned.

"Because I enjoy torturing you."

"April?" he asked, ignoring my last comment. "Ours is in April!"

"April 1st, I'm aware. Perfect day for a couple of fools to be born."

"May?"

"Goodbye, George," I said, slowly leaving the Hospital.

"But I want to know!" he whined.

"That's super unfortunate!" I called back, slipping out the doors.

After a group of Hufflepuffs had ran past the passageway, I opened the wall and started towards Gryffindor Tower.

There was a sudden shuffling around the corner and I stopped, scared of who might be lurking.

"Lee! We told you to stop bringing your girlfriend through here!"

Fred emerged from one of the side passages, his face red and tear streaked.

"Oh. It's you," he spat.

"Why are you so mad at me?" I asked him, following him as he walked away from me. "You know I'd never set you up like that."

"Maybe I don't know, Winters!" he yelled, his voice echoing on the walls. "Maybe none of us know you at all. You don't even consider us friends, who's to say that you wouldn't try to blow us up?"

Fred threw himself onto the steps leading towards the next floor and dropped his head into his hands.

"You don't think I consider you guys friends?" I asked, sitting next to him. "You're the only friends I've got here. I literally hate everyone, and I tolerate you guys. That may be the best you'll get from me, but you're still my friends."

"I know," he whispered. "I just- I think I want someone to blame."

"Blame for what? You know nothing could get passed Dumbledore's age line."

"Not that… just that…" he trailed. "I don't want Ginny to be just another Weasley kid. you know? Everyone knows us because everything is hand-me-downs and torn up. I wanted to win that money so badly. Help my parents out with everything that they do for us. Help her and Ron out with the rest of school. At least let her be known for something else."

"She already is," I told him. "She's known for beating up the Slytherin boys who piss her off. Being one of the highest marked students in her year. Being cool and funny. I think those are good things to be known for. And even if she was known for wearing torn up robes and having hand-me-downs, at least she pulls it off. Honestly, I think that her and Charlie got all the looks and brains compared to the rest of you."

"Hey!" he whined, elbowing me. "You've got to think I'm at least a little attractive."

"In your dreams, Weasley," I teased, shoving him against the wall and standing up.

"I mean, you think George is attractive and we're identical!"

I shook my head and flipped him off as I took the steps upstairs three at a time.

"You're delusional."

"You're in denial!" he called back.

I think I kind of look good with a beard…

-George Weasley


	13. Because I Was a Champion

"Why are they staring at each other?" Fred mocked whispered to his brother.

"I'm not sure, but I feel like they're about to get into a girl fight," George said excitedly. "I suggest we continue to observe the wild Winters triplets."

"I'll break your arms and send you back to the infirmary if you don't shut the hell up," I grumbled, crossing my arms and leaning against the wall.

My sisters were leaning against the opposite wall, a group of excited Slytherins surrounding them.

Jet impatiently checked the gold watch on her wrist.

"Time?" someone from the group of Slytherins called out.

"2:34," Jet and Jasmine corased.

"I'm really confused," said Lee, reappearing from a few meters down the corridor where him and Angelina had been talking about her entry.

"You're shaking, Jordan," Jasmine sniggered, the other Slytherins laughing with her. "Scared?"

"Bored," I drawled.

"Time?"

"2:39."

I fisted my hand into my pocket to turn my baseball between my fingers. In the other pocket, I kept a firm grasp on the small piece of parchment I'd had since the day before.

It was a waiting game. Every Slytherin there knew what they were waiting for, but freshly shaven Fred and George had just found me there, glaring at the identical versions of myself across the hall.

"2:42!" someone yelled.

"Go," said Jasmine quietly, staring down at her watch to confirm.

Jet grinned and pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket, proudly walking up to the Goblet standing tall in the center of the Entrance Hall.

"What's she doing?" Fred asked, confused.

The Goblet accepted her entry, unlike Fred and George, and she smiled in relief. The twins were bouncing against each other, confused and angry that they'd gotten to enter and they hadn't.

By the time the Slytherin cheering had settled and Fred and George had come to the conclusion that I wasn't going to answer any of their questions, it must have been 2:44 because Jasmine took her turn and dropped her name into the Goblet, eliciting the same amount of applause from her house and her and Jet hugged each other.

"Mother and Father are going to be so excited to hear if one of you gets named Hogwarts Champion," said a shrill voice from the center of the group. Draco came front and center, glaring at me. "Not to mention all of the former Slytherin alumni."

"Watch it, Malfoy," said Fred. "Angelina's got just as much chance as they do."

"Shut up, Fred," said George as I stepped away from the wall.

"Time?" I asked, looking at some of the Gryffindors milling around the Entrance hall.

"2:46."

I stared at the parchment in my hand.

Jordan B. L. Winters.

Hogwarts.

Slowly I raised my hand, trying to force it to stop shaking, and released my name into the Goblet of Fire.

I did nothing but glance at my sisters as I walked towards the marble staircase. My body was shaking with nerves and every eye was on me as I left.

"I don't even know who she is," said a third year Gryffindor. "Better her than someone from Slytheirn, I suppose."

I was really scared that they were wrong about that.

Footsteps echoed up the staircase after me. The twins and Lee were yelling things that I couldn't quite hear through a sudden rush in my ears.

"Winters!" one of them yelled after me. "You're crazy! Absolutely nuts!"

I stopped at the next staircase and put my head in my hands.

"Awe, Winters! I meant it in a good way. Don't be upset!"

"Yeah! That was super cool!"

I looked at them my face contorted in laughter.

"Remus is going to be so mad at me!"

The feast seemed to draw on for much longer than necessary. Everyone was on edge, nervous and excited to find out who they'd be cheering on for the rest of the school year, or if they were the person the rest of their school would be cheering on.

Karkaroff had obviously heard that my name had been entered. The second he entered the Great Hall, he kept his gaze on me, glaring at me with as much force as possible.

I wasn't bothered, though. Fred and Lee were across from me, George on my right to accommodate me being left-handed.

The twins had started questioning me about my relationship with my sisters. Making fun of me for being the youngest of the three and finding it cool that I opted out of living a lavish life in Malfoy Manor intern for being happy.

When the food cleared and excited filled the entire hall, George took the moment his brother wasn't looking to wrap an arm around me and whisper "Harry birthday, Winters" to me.

Angelina winked at me, but other than her no one saw the redness creep up my face.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore when the hall grew silent. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" — he indicated the door behind the staff table — "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes.

"Any second," Lee Jordan whispered, grinning between Angelina and I. "It's gonna be one of you."

"I hope not…" I grumbled.

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it — the whole room gasped.

Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.

"The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."

A storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall. Viktor rose from the Slytherin table and walked towards the staff table. He caught my eye long enough to send me a meek smile before he disappeared through the door into the next chamber.

"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him.

As the clapping died down, everyone's attention focused again on the goblet which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"

"She's not even fully human!" I groaned as a girl who so obviously resembled her veela mother got gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables.

"Oh look, they're all disappointed," Granger said over the noise, nodding toward the remainder of the Beauxbatons party.

Two of the girls who had not been selected had dissolved into tears and were sobbing with their heads on their arms.

"Oh no, Lee, go comfort them," I said, laughing at their sadness.

"Why are you laughing," George asked.

"Because I'm nervous," I said quietly.

His hand found mine under the table and our fingers intertwined.

"You're shaking," he chuckled.

"Shut up, Weasley."

I tried to pull away from him in mock annoyance but he pulled me closer to him instead, rubbing my skin with the pad of his thumb.

Silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it. The Hogwarts champion next . . .

And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.

"The Hogwarts champion," he called.

I buried my face in George's shoulder.

"I'm going to throw up."

"Is Jordan Winters!"

There wasn't much applause, which didn't surprise me because no one knew who I was. In some ways I was glad, because I didn't want to be special. I didn't even want to be Champion.

I entered to piss off my sisters, not for any opportunity of actually being chosen.

George squeezed my hand and started shaking me.

"Winters!" he yelled. "It's you!"

I swallowed hard and stood from my seat. It was at that moment that the rest of Gryffindor realized that the Champion was one of their own.

Every single Gryffindor jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as I stumbled past them to make my way past the teachers' table. Dumbledore winked at me, McGonagall seemed overwhelmed with joy, Moody was staring at me with both eyes, and Karkaroff broke a wine glass from squeezing it too hard.

I found myself in a smaller room, lined with paintings of witches and wizards. The faces in the portraits turned to look at me as I entered, congratulating me for being chosen.

Viktor and Fleur Delacour were standing around the fire. They looked strangely impressive, silhouetted against the flames. Viktor, hunched-up and brooding, was leaning against the mantelpiece, slightly apart from the Fleur. Fleur looking just a beautiful as normal, her veela smile looking past me, waiting for her Headmistress to enter the room.

I was no match for them.

Viktor looked at me, shocked and a big, yellowed toothy grin spread across his face. He rushed towards me, moving faster than I'd seen him move since he'd arrived at Hogwarts and he swept me off my feet, hugging me tighter than any normal person should be able to withstand.

Then the door of the small room opened and we all turned to see Harry wandering in looking nervous and shocked.

"What is it?" Fleur asked. "Do zey want us back in ze Hall?"

She thought he had come to deliver a message. Harry looked like he didn't know exactly why he was there or he didn't know how to explain what had just happened. He just stood there, looking at the three champions.

I broke away from Viktor and put a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"What's going on?"

There was a sound of scurrying feet behind him, and Ludo Bagman entered the room. He took Harry by the arm and led him forward.

"Extraordinary!" he muttered, squeezing Harry's arm. "Absolutely extraordinary! Gentlemen . . . ladies," he added, approaching the fireside and addressing the other three. "May I introduce — incredible though it may seem — the fourth Triwizard champion?"

Fleur tossed her hair, smiling, and said, "Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman."

"Joke?" Bagman repeated, bewildered. "No, no, not at all! Harry's name just came out of the Goblet of Fire!"

"There's no way!" I said, pulling Harry away from Bagman. A sudden maternal instinct forced its way out of me. "He's too young, there's no way he could have put his name in! Fred and George Weasley aren't old enough by a couple months and they couldn't put their names in. Harry's not old enough by almost three years!"

"Well . . . it is amazing," said Bagman, rubbing his smooth chin and smiling down at Harry. "But, as you know, the age restriction was only imposed this year as an extra safety measure. And as his names come out of the goblet . . . I mean, I don't think there can be any ducking out at this stage. . . . It's down in the rules, you're obliged . . . Harry will just have to do the best he —"

The door behind Bagman opened again before I could grab at the collar of his coat, and a large group of people came in: Professor Dumbledore, followed closely by Mr. Crouch, Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape.

"Madame Maxime!" said Fleur at once, striding over to her headmistress. "Zey are saying zat zis little boy is to compete also!"

"Butt out you veela-"

Viktor's hand covered my mouth before I could continue.

"What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr?" Maxime asked impatiently, apparently not hearing, or not caring about what I'd said of her star pupil.

"I'd rather like to know that myself, Dumbledore," said Professor Karkaroff. He was wearing a steely smile, and his blue eyes were like chips of ice. "Two Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions — or have I not read the rules carefully enough?"

His eyes fixed onto me and he seemed to be thinking of whether it was wise to continue on.

"It's no one's fault but Potter's, Karkaroff," said Snape softly. His black eyes were alight with malice. "Don't go blaming Dumbledore for Potter's determination to break rules. He has been crossing lines ever since he arrived here —"

"I've been with him since this morning!" I lied. "Unless he put it in last night after I watched him and his friends go to bed, then I really don't think that a fourteen year old could have put his name in. No offense Harry."

"Thank you, Miss. Winters," said Dumbledore firmly.

I managed to tune out the rest of the conversation. The accusations drove me mad and the look on Harry's face was enough for me to know for sure that he had nothing to do with the fact that his name came out of the Goblet.

Moody's eyes shifted between Harry and I as the conversation drew on. A gnarled smile would sometimes unintentionally shift onto his face, but quickly disappears as soon as he noticed me looking.

I glared at the row of professors and ministry officials until my name got brought up and I found myself listening all of a sudden.

"Both Jordan and Harry have been chosen to compete in the Tournament. This, therefore, they will do. . . ."

"Ah, but Dumbly-dorr —"

"My dear Madame Maxime, if you have an alternative, I would be delighted to hear it." Dumbledore waited, but Madame Maxime did not speak, she merely glared.

"Well, shall we crack on, then?" he said, rubbing his hands together and smiling around the room. "Got to give our champions their instructions, haven't we? Barty, want to do the honors?"

Mr. Crouch seemed to come out of a deep reverie similar to the one I'd been in moments before.

"Yes," he said, "instructions. Yes . . . the first task . . ." He moved forward into the firelight.

"The first task is designed to test your daring," he told us. "So we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard . . . very important. . . ."

At the mention of the word courage, McGonagall seemed very excited. Though the circumstances weren't ideal, she had two students from her house competing in the tournament and anyone could agree that was something to be proud of.

"The first task will take place on November the twenty-fourth, in front of the other students and the panel of judges. The champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament. The champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will receive information about the second task when the first is over. Owing to the demanding and time-consuming nature of the tournament, the champions are exempted from end-of-year tests."

Mr. Crouch turned to look at Dumbledore.

"I think that's all, is it, Albus?"

"I think so," said Dumbledore.

"Harry, Jordan, I suggest you go up to bed," said Dumbledore, smiling at both of them. "I am sure Gryffindor is waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise."

Harry glanced at me and I grabbed him by the arm, dragging him out of the room as fast as possible.

"I hope you know," I told him. "Even if no one else believes you, I do. I know you didn't put your name in the cup."

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

"Because you and I have a knack for finding trouble and not wanting anything to do with it."

Three people in the Legilimans registry were born October 31st.

George Weasley


	14. Because I Celebrated

Harry seemed disgruntled by the treatment he was receiving when we'd arrived back in the Gryffindor Common Room.

Lee had unearthed a few Gryffindor banner from somewhere, and he insisted on draping one around Harry and I like a cloak. Harry couldn't get away; whenever he tried to sidle over to the staircase up to the dormitories, the crowd around him closed ranks, forcing another butterbeer on him, stuffing crisps and peanuts into his hands.

It was odd to me that someone so famous could still not be used to the attention. At the same time, it was understandable why he'd started to get upset. Nobody wanted to hear that he wasn't hungry; nobody wanted to hear that he hadn't put his name in the goblet. I seemed to be the single person to have noticed that he wasn't at all in the mood to celebrate.

I wasn't sure how I felt that I was the one who'd actually gotten chosen and yet no one seemed to care about me besides Lee and the twins and a few of the Quidditch players.

It wasn't like I wanted to be celebrated or the center of attention, but it hurt a little to not even be recognized.

All anyone wanted was to know how he had done it, how he had tricked Dumbledore's Age Line and managed to get his name into the goblet…

"I didn't," he said, over and over again, "I don't know how it happened."

But for all the notice anyone took, he might just as well not have answered at all.

"I'm tired!" Harry yelled finally, after nearly half an hour of being prodded with snacks and drinks and asked about things he didn't have an answer for.

"Ah, come on, Harry," said George, grabbing his shoulder.

"No," said Harry, pushing George away.

"We're just trying to celebrate man!"

"Seriously, George — I'm going to bed—"

"Hey!" I yelled over the people grabbing at him. Everyone paused for a moment, confused by such a loud noise coming from someone they'd hardly ever heard speak. "Sod off, the lot of you. You're Champion needs sleep, all right?"

I knew that he didn't want to be called the Champion. I knew that better than anyone else apparently. But it worked, because Harry nodded at me as he slipped up the staircase without being touched or talked to by another person.

"Well that was boring," said someone from the other side of the common room. "Our Champion doesn't even want to celebrate with us."

I looked down at the flood, trying not to leg anger overcome me.

"You're all daft," said Angelina suddenly. "Gryffindor has two Champions!"

Few people cheered, but it was more awkward murmuring about none of them knowing who I was and, therefore, not caring.

Someone asked who the other chick even was, obviously not noticing the banner tied around my neck.

A group of boys started joking about not noticing anyone who wasn't tall and beautiful like Angelina.

Another said, "Isn't she one of the Winters twins or something? I thought they were both in Slytherin. The two girls that live with the Malfoys."

"There's three of us," I spat, finally losing my cool and pulling the Gryffindor banner from around my neck and shoving it into Lee's chest. "Not that anyone cares."

"Winters," Katie Bell said timidly. "We care! It's just… no one really knows you."

"Yo! You're the girl that Moody messed with right?" one of the other sixth years asked suddenly, apparently just noticing who everyone was talking about. "That was super cool!"

"I'm leaving," I said, making my way towards the stairs.

"No you're not," said Fred, grabbing me around the middle and forcing me over his shoulder. He carried me across the common room while I pounded on his back trying to get away. Finally, he set me on top of one of the tables so I was the tallest person in the room and stood on a chair next to me so he could be seen and heard by every Gryffindor in the room.

"This is Jordie Winters," he announced. "She isn't just some chick that's got counterparts in Slytherin. She isn't just the girl that Moody has it out for. She's your Champion. The only Hogwarts Champion that we technically should have."

"Hell yeah!" said Lee, jumping up onto a chair next to Fred. "She's saved your asses more times than any of you know. Stopped the Grindylow from killing all of us last year when Lupin wasn't there. Refined some of your potions for Snape's class so he didn't fail every person in third year. Caught Spinnet when she almost fell off the Astronomy tower our fourth year."

Alicia blushed and muttered a 'thanks Winters'.

"Yeah, okay we've got the Harry Potter as a Champion. You know who else we've got? The Jordie Winters. She's older and wiser, and she's got more tricks up her sleeves."

"And she's prettier!" said a seventh year boy I'd never met.

"And you're right," he said. "She overcame two of the Unforgivable Curses in front of your eyes, so think about what else she can do. Even if you don't like it," Fred grinned at me. "Everything happens for a reason."

I mouthed 'thanks Monroe" as George jumped onto the table with me, almost knocking us both off in the process.

"Hogwarts is going to win this tournament!" said George. "And it's gonna be Winters who collects the prize!"

The room burst into cheering and singing and excited chatter. I felt the heat of blush explode across my face. Everyone knew who I was now. And surprisingly, not everyone hated me.

The twins helped me off of the table and Lee turned up the music on the radio in front of the fire. There was food and drink and singing and dancing throughout the entire common room. Now instead of it being shoved in Harry's face, it was offered to me instead.

Fred was sitting next to me on one of the window sills, being some sort of manager for when people would come and try and talk to me or in some cases flirt with me.

The seventh year boy who'd called me pretty appeared at some point, very drunk. He offered me a chug of his Firewhiskey and then tried to get me to dance with him.

"I don't dance," I told him. "That requires a certain level of… I don't know, pride that I definitely don't have."

"Well, if you won't dance with me, then come up to my dorm later," he slurred before wandering away.

"I'd really rather not, not going to lie," I told Fred, chuckling a little.

I looked at him to find him just staring at me with a dumb grin on his face.

"She's so happy," he thought.

I blushed and looked away, trying not to listen to his thoughts anymore.

"Why are you staring at me?" I asked him.

"You're happy," he told me.

"Who says?"

"The dumb smile that you can't get off your face."

I glared at him.

"You're still smiling!"

I rolled my eyes and looked away from him.

"Thank you for doing that for me," I said quietly.

I could feel him grinning stupidly in the other direction.

"We just wanted everyone to realize who the real champion is."

"What about Harry?" I asked him. "He didn't put his name in the Goblet and he still has to compete. He deserves as much recognition as I do."

"He'll get more recognition that you, Viktor, and Delecore combined," said Lee, sitting on the other side of me. "After all, it's not like some random fourteen year old got his name in the cup. It's Harry Potter. He's done enough cool things in his life that I bet he'll be alright."

"I suppose you're right. And you know what they say," I said, poking Fred in the cheek. "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

"You mean as Van Gogh said?"

"Watch it, Monroe," I warned. I looked across the common room and furrowed my eyebrows together. "Where'd George go anyway?"

"He went to the kitchen to get some gooy veech for you."

"Gyuvech," I corrected. "Why didn't you go with him?"

Fred shrugged.

"He told us to keep an eye on you so no one like murdered you or something."

"I actually said that I wanted them to make sure you were enjoying yourself, but making sure you're not murdered is equally important I guess."

George set a massive bowl of Gyuvech on the table nearest to us.

"Awe," I cooed, standing up to admire the soup in front of me. "You're sweet."

His ears turned pink.

"Do you guys… like mind if… or would you- never mind."

"You can't do that!" said Lee. "Don't leave us on a never mind! Finish your question."

"Yeah ask your question, Winters."

"I was just gonna ask if you wanted to like… help me open my birthday presents when everyone clears out."

"Parties over, everyone!" George yelled. "Get to sleep!"

"I didn't mean right now!" I said, startled. "Oh whatever."

It was like he was in charge of a herd of sheep. Every single person filed up the stairs to their dorms without complaint and the few people from other houses that had slipped in their boyfriends and girlfriends quickly left through the portrait hole.

The common room was suddenly silent aside from the crackling of the dying fire.

"What are you waiting for?" Fred asked. "Go get your presents!"

Alicia and Angelina waved to me as I entered and exited the dorm, but didn't question where I was going as I left with my basket and the small box that Viktor had given me upon arriving to Hogwarts.

Downstairs the twins and Lee were pouring out four bowls of Gyuvech and four glasses of Butterbeer to go with it.

I forced myself between the twins on the couch, forcing Lee onto the floor because of the lack of room.

"What's the card on the basket say?" asked Lee, pulling at it and reading it aloud.

"Didn't want to distract you from the tournament so I asked that everyone send your gifts to me so I could make sure they got there a day early. Hope you don't mind.

Love, Remus"

"Professor Lupin sent you this?" asked Fred.

"Yeah, but there's things from everyone in it. Like Chai-" I said pulling out the biggest box and reading the card aloud. "Madam Connell made the little ones help decorate it. Sorry, Jo... Love you, girly. Happy Birthday."

I opened the box to find a slightly crushed cake decorated with every color of icing possible. There were drawings of baseballs, Bagel the owl, the Gryffindor lion, and of what they must have thought Hogwarts looked like. In neater handwriting that must have been one of the older girl's it said:

Congrats on getting older, Jo!

"Butterbeer," said Fred after he stuck his finger into the side of the cake and licked the remence off of his skin.

"And now this cake is your's, Fred, congratulate!" I said, dropping the cake onto his lap.

"That looks like Charlie's handwriting," said George, pointing to a card that was tied to a poorly wrapped bottle.

"Happy birthday, kiddo. Tell my brothers and Ginny I said hi. Also tell my brothers I like you and Ginny more than them."

"Rude!" Fred scoffed through the pile of cake he'd shoved into his mouth.

"Here's some recent photos of Norberta and Lia. They've started nesting! Hope you'll get to see them soon. Best wishes, Charlie! Also don't tell anyone about the whiskey. I don't send the twins things like that because we're all notoriously bad drunks."

I pulled the bottle from the basket and unwrapped a bottle of firewhiskey from Romania.

"Well, now you know," I said, trying to hide it from sight as if they hadn't seen it already.

"Save it for when something exciting happens," said Lee, trying to take it from me. "I'll keep it safe."

"Hands off," I snapped.

George reached into the basket to find a perfectly wrapped square with a letter attached. The letter had Muggle stamps on it meaning it was from my baseball team.

"Happy birthday Joey! There was a retirement tour across the UK and we somehow managed to get this signed for you. We know how much you love Danny."

I gasped, tearing off the paper in a haste.

Inside was a baseball signed by star pitcher Danny Cox.

"I'm gonna pass out," I said, leaning against Fred. "Danny Cox… touched this."

"Who's that?"

"Muggle pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, and Toronto Blue Jays. You should have seen that man. He was an actual legend."

"Kind of like Viktor?" asked Lee. "Except Muggle and old?"

I rolled my eyes and pulled out the next gift.

"This one's from Remus," I said, reading the card. "Happy birthday sweetheart. Please don't tell your sisters you got anything from me. I know they wouldn't appreciate anything I got them and I don't have the money for all three of you to get nice things. Hope you understand."

"They told me he got them something," I grumbled.

"Go Lupin. Show em who's boss," said Fred, still shoving cake into his mouth.

"You're going to choke," I warned him.

"Keep reading," said Lee.

I looked back down at the card.

"The first box is something I've been putting together since I started traveling for the Ministry after I left Hogwarts."

George pulled out a long box and pulled the top off. Inside were five thick bars of chocolate, labeled with where they were from.

Belgium, Switzerland, Ecuador, London, and Pennsylvania.

"I was going to give you more of each but I sampled each of them and then got a little carried away… Sorry about that," I read, laughing. "The other thing is a sweater that Molly Weasley helped me make. I'll admit that she did a little more than I did, but I think I'm going to start knitting more frequently."

"Awe, our mom made you a Weasley sweater," said George, pulling out a blush pink sweater with a J in the middle of it.

"I hate pink," I grumbled. "He says it looks nice on me like it did on my mom."

"I think pink complements the blackness of your hair," said George, holding a strand of my hair against the pink sweater.

"Shut up."

Counting Viktor's gift there were still three things left in the basket. Madam Connell's anuel summer hockey tickets were the first thing I grabbed. There was no note, but I knew that she put a lot of thought into which tickets she bought me every year.

Next was an envelope with Jackson's handwriting on it.

"Happy birthday, Winters. Miss and love you. Come see Charlie and I soon if you can get away from Connell for a couple weeks this summer."

Aside from the letter there was a small charm inside the envelope.

"Sweadish Short Snout."

I pulled off my robes and pulled up the sleeve of my jumper to reveal the charm bracelet hanging from my wrist.

"You don't strike me at a jewelry kind of person," said Fred, poking at the various handmade bracelets on my other wrist.

"I only wear things that have specific meaning to them… like my necklace," I pulled a necklace from under the neckline of my shirt.

"Is that a constellation?" asked George.

"The Lady of the Chair," I told him. "One of my mum's best friends gave it to her when she was in Hogwarts. I've also got one for my uncle but he wasn't a great person so I guess I just don't want to represent him when he doesn't deserve it."

"What about the bracelets?"

I looked down at the handmade string bracelets.

"I've got one for every kid that's left the orphanage since I got there."

"And the dragon charms are from your friend in Romania, I'd guess."

"Yeah, he's super talented at carving things. When him and Charlie started going up to Romania during the summer, he'd make me one based off of the oldest dragon that was there at the time. This is the seventh addition."

"I guess we never realized how young Charlie was when he got an interest in dragons," said Fred.

"Yeah… I mean, I remember mum and him fighting over if it was a good idea for him to start spending summers away from us after spending all year at Hogwarts. He'd always win her over by saying he was doing something he loved."

I grinned a little.

"Jackson did the same thing to Madam Connell. She'd always scream about how it was her responsibility to keep him safe until he was seventeen and she wasn't going to let a fifteen year old boy go off and run around with dragons. He won her over by saying that he'd just leave and not come back and that made her mad so she always let him come back until-" I bit my lip, catching myself.

"Until… he- uh, tried to take me with him and then she told him he couldn't come back anymore because he was a bad influence on me," I lied.

"I'm sure Hagrid would love this," said Lee, looking at all the additions he'd missed between second year and sixth year.

"Hagrid has a stone carving bigger than my face of this one right here," I told them, showing the Norwiegen Ridgeback named Norberta. "Hagrid showed him how to carve his first year and he's never stopped. Perfected his craft."

"That's sweet," George cooed.

I rotated the last box in my fingers.

Passed down through generations of Krum women, I remembered Viktor telling me.

"I really hope this isn't ugly…" I mumbled.

Inside was a ring. A thin, silver band engraved with birds. In the center was a single blood red stone.

"That's really pretty, Winters," said George.

He was right. It was a simplistic design that didn't give me the risk of accidentally injuring someone if I bumped them with it unlike some other bulky Bulgarian jewelry.

"Do you think it'd hurt if I punched someone in the face with this on?" I asked, slipping it onto my right index finger and making a fist.

"I don't want it to be tested on me, so I'm just going to say yes," said Fred, leaning away from me.

"Guess it stays, then."

I woke up in the common room with Winters in my arms and Lee cuddling my leg. I'd say it was cute if Fred didn't have his entire body spread out across us and my leg wasn't numb.

-George Weasley.


	15. Because I Was Alone

Sunday morning I woke up with someone pressed against my back. There was an arm wrapped around my chest and another holding me from under my neck. I gasped and pulled myself away, falling off the common room couch and almost onto Lee's head.

I grabbed at my neck, checking for wounds. Then at my chest. Then back at my neck feeling something wet dripping down towards my chest.

"What's going on? Why are you on the floor?" asked George, in a 'I just woke up' voice. He looked at me a little closer and a look of worry washed over his face. "Why are you crying?"

I took a few deep breaths and scanned the common room, trying to get my boundaries.

Fred was asleep across the top of the couch in some kind of impossible balancing act, the butterbeer cake on the table by his head and the loud snores pouring out of his throat like an animal. Lee was lying on the floor next to me in a ball, one of the common room blankets wrapped around him like a burrito.

George was laying on the couch where I'd just been, startled and his arms now empty.

"Winters?" he asked, flailing around to try and sit up in front of me. He reached out to touch my face, trying to wipe away the tears streaming d0wn my face, but I swatted his hand away on impulse. "Hey, I'm sorry."

He was still doing his best to wake up, wiping the sleep out of his eyes and trying to cough the tired out of his voice.

I wiped away the tears away myself and stood, trying to straighten my clothes.

"I need to write Remus," I told him, grabbing my rucksack at the end of the couch and finding my wand on the window sill I'd been sitting on the night before.

"Winters," said George, following me out the portrait hole.

I turned for a second to seem him struggling to take off the tie he'd fallen asleep in. It was twisted around his neck and the knott had gotten tighter as he slept.

"I don't think you're making it better," I told him.

He looked up from his tug of war game and frowned. He looked defeated and worried out of his mind.

I checked the surrounding passageways to see if anyone else was around, but we were alone at seven in the morning on a sunday. So, I slowly walked towards him and pulled his hands away from the tie to help him untie it without making it any tighter.

Before I could back away, the tie dangling on either side of his neck, he took my hands.

"I'm sorry, Winters. If I overstepped my boundaries, I'm really sorry."

I shook my head and pulled my hands away.

"It's not your fault," I said, forcing a smile. "I'll see you later, okay?"

He didn't argue, but he didn't more to leave either. He ran a nervous hand through his hair and dropped his head to look at the floor.

Quickly, before him or I could comprehend my actions, I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my head into his shoulder in a short but tight hug, before I pulled away and made my way down the marble staircase and towards the owlery without looking back at him.

There I pulled a notebook out of my bag and started to draft an impossible letter to Remus. The first couple times I wrote the letter out I talked about how I'd only entered to piss off my sister. Scraped that to talk about how I knew he'd be mad that I entered, but I was excited to compete, but I knew that that was a lie, so I dropped that one as well.

It took over an hour for me to get my thoughts under control so I could write a genuine letter to my godfather.

Dear Remus,

Thank you for the birthday gifts. The chocolate is very good and the sweater… well, I can see what parts you knitted. Tell Mrs. Weasley that I said thank you for helping with it.

I guess you've heard at this point that the Triwizard Tournament is at Hogwarts this year. They had to draw an age line around the Goblet of Fire to make sure no underaged wizards entered… I know you see where this is going already, so yes. I entered and so did Jet and Jasmine. Fred and George also tried to enter, but they just grew beards and acted like grouchy old men for about an hour because their birthday isn't until April.

Viktor got chosen as the Champion from Durmstrange and a Veela girl from Beauxbatons got picked as well. And I promise you I wouldn't have entered if I thought for even a moment that I'd have any chance of getting picked… but I did.

And please don't be too mad. You know me, and that I can handle it. I'm more worried about Harry. He somehow got picked as well. Everyone seems to think that he somehow entered his name into the Goblet, but I know that he didn't.

He's really scared, Remus. I know he won't dare to tell you that, but I can tell. I've got a really bad feeling about this. If Harry didn't put his name in, I'm not sure who did.

Love, Jordie.

Ps. I miss you loads. You should try and come watch one of the tasks… for Harry, obviously.

As I finished writing and was whistling for Bagel to to me, there were two sets of footsteps leading up into the owlery. I dropped through one of the open windows and onto the outside ledge, not wanting them to see me, whoever they were. I needed more time alone.

Harry and Hermione appeared at the top of the steps and she handed him a piece of parchment, a quill, and some ink. She strolled around the long lines of perches, looking at all the different owls, while Harry sat down against a wall and write out what seemed like a very, very long letter.

Or I was just hidden behind a wall at an uncomfortable angle for too long.

"Finished," he told Hermione finally, getting to his feet and brushing straw off his robes.

At this, a large snowy owl came fluttering down onto his shoulder and held out its leg.

"I can't use you," Harry told it, looking around for the school owls. "I've got to use one of these…"

The owl gave a very loud hoot and took off so suddenly that its talons left a visible gash in his shoulder. It kept it's back to Harry all the time he was tying his letter to the leg of a large barn owl. When the barn owl had flown off, Harry reached out to stroke the snowy owl, but it clicked it's beak furiously and soared up into the rafters out of reach.

"First Ron, then you," said Harry angrily. "This isn't my fault."

Hermione gave him a sympathetic look before they hurried down the stairs of the owlery.

I jumped back through the window and started to tie the letter to Bagel.

"Yell at Remus if he forgets to feed you when you get there," I told her, stroking her head. "Be safe."

Bagel hooted softly before jumping out of the window and soaring away from the castle. I watched her for as long as I could. I really just wanted to leave with her.

I took the stairs back down to the main floor as slowly as physically possible and took a lap around the school before I made my way back inside. By the time I got back into the main entrance, breakfast was almost over and there were very few people left at any of the tables.

I saw the back of the twins' heads and slowly walked towards them, but stopped as I got close enough to hear what they were talking about. It's something I'd expect them to be whispering about, but with only twenty or so people still left in the Great Hall, it made sense that I could hear them from five feet away.

"I don't know, she's done that since first year. Used to wake me up all the time, but either she's gotten better or I stopped noticing it," said Angelina.

"I hear her talking in her sleep a lot," said Alicia. "Asking for help or for someone to leave her alone. I'm not sure what happened to her, but I'm sure it's not your fault, George. Probably just something from her past."

"I've just never seen someone try and get away from me so fast if I wasn't throwing a stink bomb at them…" George trailed, dropping his head onto the table. "Do I smell bad?"

"I think it's more that she's just a little not all there…" said Alicia.

I found myself cracking my knuckles in aggravation.

"Jo!" said someone from the Entrance Hall.

Every head at the Gryffindor table turned to see me standing there, angry bubbling off of me.

"Winters," said Fred sadly. "We didn't-"

"Didn't know I was here?" I spat. "Because it'd be okay to say that I'm not all there if I wasn't here?"

"Jo!" said Viktor again as he came up from behind me. "Am I interrupting something?"

His droopy eyes looked between us, worried that he'd be intervening whatever tension was so thickly present between the group sitting at the table and me.

"No…" I said, forcing myself to be calm as I turned away from them to walk out of the Great Hall with him. "What's up?"

"It's just… I know that there's several interviews coming up for the champions. Have you any idea of what they'll ask."

"I suppose it'll be different for everyone…" I trailed. "You'll probably get asked about Quidditch and the World Cup."

He groaned at this.

"Vhat if I don't vant to talk about that stuff?"

"Depends on who's interviewing you. Some will just ask you about other things and others will say… not so nice things about you in the Daily Prophet."

"I'm used to that," he told me. "People say I'm quite rude in the papers. I just don't like talking to reporters."

"I know you don't," I said, giving him a small smile. "I'm sure you'll be fine. What does anyone else care about what you say in an interview anyways? You see how all the people here treat you, and I'm sure a lot of them have seen all kinds of interviews you've done."

"Vhat do you think they'll ask you?" he asked.

I thought for a moment and laughed a cold and sad laugh.

"Probably about Harry."

"I hope not," he told me. "You deserve for people to know you. You're really talented, Jo. The vorld deserves to see that."

I smiled up at him, "Thank you, Vik."

As we entered onto the grounds, we could see the rest of the Durmstrang students along with Karkaroff on their way to the castle and Viktor waved goodbye to me, a content smile on his face.

"Thank you, Jo."

I wasn't sure why he was thankful. If it was just that he needed someone other than Karkaroff to talk to or if he needed some kind of reassurance, but I was glad I could help him get it.

At some point that afternoon I found myself standing out by the Black Lake, twisting the ring Viktor had given me around my finger. For the first time that year, I felt the sad alone I'd felt so often the previous years.

When Charlie and Jackson left after my second year, I felt the same alone I'd felt after my mom died. No one wanted to talk to me anymore. No one wanted to be friends. That year I learned the art of being by myself. That sometimes it was better to find comfort in your own mind than in other people. I'd gotten used to that until the twins came along.

Even though they pissed me off and irritated me with their antics, I'd found comfort in no longer being alone.

It was the first time that year that I was able to be somewhere without them in front, behind, or around me.

It wasn't a good feeling anymore. The comfort I'd found in being alone for so many years no longer existed inside of me.

I feel like it's all my fault that Winters ran off. That I scared her or triggered something inside of her that I never want her to feel. She was scared of me.

-George Weasley


	16. Because I Argued

It was later that week that the buttons appeared. They rotated between saying Potter Stinks and Who's Winters? in an attempt at mildly insulting Harry and I at the same time.

It was bad enough when my own sisters started wearing pins insulting their own last names, but when some of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws started wearing them because Harry and I had taken something away from their house because we'd been chosen instead of someone from one of their houses, that's when it started piss me off.

Classes had grown lonely without the twins teasing me like normal. Instead they sat together a few rows ahead of me in ever class just to cut out the risk of me blowing up if they got too close.

On top of that, in every class, people from other houses would boast about their pins without me being able to say a word. It was isolating.

"Thanks guys," I muttered to a group of second year Gryffindors who were showing off their Winters for the Win badges.

I watched them walk away and then turned my attention back to the open classroom door just a few steps in front of me.

Moody was thumping around inside, preparing his lesson for us while most of my class was already inside and watching him.

Running footsteps started echoing behind me. The sound of someone running away from something they'd done wrong.

To opt of out George running into me like he had so many times before, I quickly slipped into Moody's class and into the furthest seat back before the twins and Lee and fell into seats in front of me, panting heavily and their faces red from running.

"What'd you do?" asked Angelina, turning to face from her spot in front of them.

"Don't worry about it."

It wasn't long after that two Hufflepuff boys entered the room, looking disgruntled. They each had massive holes in their robes in the same place lots of their classmates had their Potter Stinks badges.

"What happened to you?" Moody grunted.

"I don't know!" one of them said. "We were coming out of the bathroom and all of sudden there was smoke everyone and then our badges exploded!"

"Almost like someone's trying to call out your bad teamenship?" Moody said, a small smile on his face.

All of the Hufflepuffs looked around at each other, worried for the scolding that was inevitably coming.

"Incase you haven't noticed, this is a tournament of school versus school, not house versus house. No matter which house the champion, or in our case, champions come from, it's your job to support them, am I wrong?"

The two Hufflepuffs flushed in embarrassment and Moody and I both seemed to notice that Fred and George were high fiving under their desks.

"So, a point from each Hufflepuff wearing a Potter Stinks badge," he said, causing an audible groan from all of the Hufflepuffs. "And detention to the Weasley twins and our champion from playing dirty, no matter how good the intent was."

Both of the twins went ridgid.

"Me?" I gasped. "It's not my fault that they're absolutely idiots! I had nothing to do with it!"

"Can you prove that?" Moody asked me, weirdly calm.

"I wasn't there, therefore I've got nothing to convict me?" I said, dumbfounded.

Moody just grunted and turned away from me.

"You're actually about to punish me for something that happened while I was sitting in your classroom?"

"Keep arguing with me, Winters," he said, suddenly angry. "And we'll just have to make it a week of detention. Now, today's lesson we'll be talking more about the UnForgivable Curses-"

The door of the classroom opened and McGonagall stepped in.

Moody's eye swung around to see who it was but he continued talking, not giving a chance for the intruder to interrupt.

"Ludo has asked for Winters, Moody. Do you mind?" McGonagall asked loudly.

"Thank Merlin," I muttered, grabbing my bag.

"She'll have to make up my lesson on her own if she leaves," he growled.

"I'll stay," I groaned, dropping back into my seat.

"As all four of the champions are getting pulled from their current classes, we've requested that they be exempt from this lesson," said McGonagall coldly. "Winters, come with me please."

"You got it," I said, moving to go with her.

"Descendo!" Moody said, and I was forced back into my seat, unable to get up.

McGonagall gasped, moving to block his spell, but I did it first, standing up and looking between them.

"I am not something to fight over!" I yelled, marching past them both and into the corridor.

"You don't even know where you're going!" said McGonagall, following me.

"Three doors past the Transfiguration classroom!" I said, waving her off.

It was actually one of the Creevy boys that fed me that information. He was running down the corridor saying it over and over again in his head, obviously on his way to go get Harry.

"Collin!" I said, taking a few large strides to catch up with him.

He turned, shocked.

"M-me?" he stuttered. "You're Jordan Winters! You know my name?"

I didn't want to tell him that the only reason I knew that was because he was holding a camera with his name embroidered on the strap, so I let him believe what he wanted.

"Do you know why all the champions are getting called up by Bagman?"

"Pic-pictures, for the Prophet, I think," he stuttered. "Can I take your picture?"

"No," I said firmly, pushing his camera from my face. "Is that all you know?"

He nodded nervously.

"Interviews maybe. I saw Mr. Ollivander in the room as well."

"Ollivander?" I repeated. "Thanks, Creevy."

"No problem Jordan Winters."

"Winters," I corrected. "Call me Winters."

Collin smiled widely before running away to go get Harry.

Three doors down from the Transfiguration classroom was a small classroom; most of the desks had been pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a large space in the middle; three of them, however, had been placed end-to-end in front of the blackboard and covered with a long length of velvet.

Viktor was standing moodily in a corner as usual and not talking to anybody. Fleur looked a good deal happier than anyone had seen her so far; she kept throwing back her head so that her long silvery hair caught the light. Disturbingly enough, a paunchy man, holding a large black camera that was smoking slightly, was watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye.

Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of the chairs behind the velvet covered desk, talking to none other than Rita Skeeter.

Skeeter sent me a sly grin and I knew that my fate was about to be broadcasted across the Daily Prophet by a woman who not only hated me, but my godfather as well.

Harry entered a little while later and Skeeter pulled him into a sad looking broom closet from an interview. Viktor and I stood next to each other as all of the judges poured into the room. Fleur attempted a conversation with me but I had to bite my tongue as to not insult her.

When Dumbledore pulled Harry out of the broom closet, he looked a lot angerier and red in the face than he had just minutes before. Skeeter, on the other hand, looked utterly delighted.

We all sat in chairs near the door, staring ahead at Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Mr. Crouch, and Ludo Bagman.

"May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?" said Dumbledore, taking his place at the judges' table and talking to the champions. "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."

"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?" said Mr. Ollivander, stepping into the empty space in the middle of the room.

Fleur swept over to Mr. Ollivander and handed him her wand.

"Hmmm . . ." he said.

He twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton and it emitted a number of pink and gold sparks. Then he held it close to his eyes and examined it carefully.

"Yes," he said quietly, "nine and a half inches . . . inflexible . . . rosewood . . . and containing . . . dear me . . ."

"An 'air from ze 'ead of a veela," said Fleur. "One of my grandmuzzer's."

I could hear the gears in Harry's head turning at this one.

"Yes," said Mr. Ollivander, "yes, I've never used veela hair myself, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands . . . however, to each his own, and if this suits you . . ."

Mr. Ollivander ran his fingers along the wand, apparently checking for scratches or bumps; then he muttered, "Orchideous!" and a bunch of flowers burst from the wand tip.

"Very well, very well, it's in fine working order," said Mr. Ollivander, scooping up the flowers and handing them to Fleur with her wand. "Miss. Winters, you next."

I stood, handing him my wand anxiously.

"Ah yes, yes, yes. I could never forget a wand so personal. Made it for at your request if I'm not mistaken. Ten and a half inches, ebony, springy and containing hair from your godfather, Remus Lupin, in his lunar state."

"Quite an incredible wand, if I do say so myself. Then again, I made it. Aguamenta!"

Water shot out of the tip of my wand and splashed onto the judges table.

"Incredible," he said, smiling.

"Mr. Krum, if you please."

I tuned out a lot of the rest of the weighing of the wands. I didn't want to be there anymore than anyone else. Skeeter kept staring at me for, an evil grin on her face, and in the time it took for my wand to be examined, she'd filled two entire pages with nonsense about me that I was sure would be in the paper later that week.

After a long series of pictures where I was instructed to smile and then look serious and then stand next to Harry and then alone and then next to Dumbledore and then next to the rest of the champions, I was tired of all the people in that room.

Karkaroff had whispered threats into my ear on more than one occasion and Madam Maxime had told Dumbedore and the girl's uniforms are ugly and then offered to make me something a little more appealing for the tournament. Bagman asked about my Squib friend from the World Cup and if he'd been okay since being hurled around in their air like a doll.

When the photos were finally done, dinner had already started. I stood in the entrance of the Great Hall for a few moments, trying to find a place to sit and be alone.

Lucky for me. The Gryffindor table was packed as normal. The only gaps were people actively avoid sitting near the Creevy brothers while they attempted to jinx something in front of them, two seventh years that were sucking face, and the twins at the end of the table, obviously plotting something. Not even Angelina was sitting with them.

I paused for a moment, contemplating my words before coughing a little to get their attention.

"Not now," said Fred, not even looking up at me.

"Oh…" I said sadly. "Sorry."

Both of them looked up at me with shock across their faces.

"Winters!" George said, panicked.

"I thought you were Alicia or Angelina," said Fred, standing up to keep me from walking away again.

"I just wanted to say thank you… for the blowing up the Hufflepuff badges," I told them. "I don't want to bother you, though. You seem busy."

"You're not bothering us!" said George. "We're not busy either. Just… actively trying to make it seem like we are."

"Why?" I asked warily.

The twins both glanced down the table to Angalina, Alicia, and Katie Bell. The three girls were whispering and looking towards the twins with malice.

"What's up with them."

"They're pissed off," said George.

"Obviously. Why, though?"

"Apparently girls don't like it when you tell them you'd rather watch paint dry than be around them if they're going to say horrid things about people you care about," said Fred.

"And for two of the most rambunctious people I've ever met, that really says a lot," I said, smiling a little. "You're both dumb."

"Are we dumb enough for you to sit and have dinner with us?" asked George, scooting over so I'd have room next to him.

I smiled and sat next to him.

"It's been awfully boring without you around, Winters," said Fred.

"Yeah it's like all we can do is think about Bagman or our prank products."

"Isn't that what you always used to do?" I asked.

"Yeah, but you've made us a lot more level headed since then."

"So where'd you end up going for all of DADA?" asked George.

"The Weighing of the Wands Ceremony," I said in my fanciest voice. "Ollivander was there. He just checked to make sure everyone's wands were working and then they took some pictures of us for the paper. I feel like Harry made the front page."

"Why do you say that?"

"Remember the Rita Skeeter lady that was publishing all of the awful things in the Prophet about the Ministry whenever everything happened at the World Cup?"

Both of the twins nodded grimmly, apparently know all too well.

"Guess who's reporting on the tournament."

"You're kidding!" said Fred agerily. "She's going to make all of you look awful."

"You're telling me," I said, resting my face in my hands.

George rubbed my back soothingly.

"Don't worry about her. She can't make that big of an impact on you."

Turns out Rita Skeeter can in fact make an impact on you.

-George Weasley


	17. Because I Kissed Him

It'd been a couple weeks since the Weighing of the Wands. The first task was only weeks away and the nerves still hadn't really set in like they seemed to for Harry.

Everyday he was moving closer to me at lunch and dinner, trying to ask me questions about various spells and incantations he'd yet to learn. There was a span of three days that he'd convinced himself that first task would have something to do with a potion, causing him to become a nervous wreck. It wasn't until I reminded him that nothing about brewing a potion screamed daring and courageous like the first task was supposed to be.

I didn't see the true extent of his nerves until the Daily Prophet articles started to come out and the Slytherins and angry Hufflepuffs started to tourture him, making fun of him for crying over his dead parents.

Though Harry had been the main attraction of the first article published, Viktor and Fleur hardly being mentioned, and my name not being brought up at all, surprisingly enough, I was next in line.

George had the paper in hand one Saturday morning, reading it aloud to us as soon as he saw that something about the Triwizard Tournament was the headline of the front page.

"Unknown Gryffindor chosen as Champion," he read aloud. "Sixth year Jordan Winters is suffering under the excruciating pressure of going against her schoolmate, the one and only Harry Potter (covered in previous edition)."

"No offense to Harry, but he's one of the least intimidating people I know," I scoffed. "In what world would I feel pressure from going up against him when Viktor Krum is part of the competition?"

"It's a well known fact that after the death of her mother to unknown causes, Winters is said to have been living in an orphanage in London because her werewolf godfather, Remus Lupin, wouldn't take her in because of his lack of income."

"What does she know about Remus," I yelled. "He didn't take me in because no one wants a nine year old around when they're going through monthly werewolf transformations. He did it to protect me!"

"Well, Rita Skeeter doesn't care about what people do from the good of their hearts," sneered Fred, annoyed at hearing the newest misfeed of information pouring out of the Daily Prophet.

"It seems like the lack of a father figure in her life has turned her into quite the scandalous teenager. After dating Lee Jordan of Gryffindor," George read.

Lee turned an alarmingly bright shade of red at this and immediately started looking for Madeleine.

"She's gonna kill me if reads that!" he said, leaving the table in a rush.

"And Bulgarian beauty Petar Alexandrov," he said, looking at me for an explanation for that one.

"Until he pissed me off and I broke his arms," I stated.

"She's bounced between a long term Squib boyfriend-"

"Ah yes, my long term, gay, Squib boyfriend."

"And several boys from a Muggle sports team she plays on in the summer-"

"All of which are in relationships I got them into," I clarified. "Yeah, she's putting out all sorts of spot-on information here."

"More recently, her triplet sisters, Jet and Jasmine, have been quoted in saying," George cleared his throat, preparing the mock the sound of their voices. "'Well, I haven't seen her away from the Weasley twins in quite some time. One of them always has their arm around her if they're not making out in front of our classrooms.'"

"You've got to be kidding me," I groaned, moving to slam my head against the table.

"Hey!" scolded George, grabbing my forehead to make the impact of my forehead on the wood a little lighter. "It's not so bad, Winters. Sure it doesn't make you look great, but I honestly don't think anyone's going to care much about how many relationships you've been in."

"Hey Winters!" someone yelled from the Ravenclaw table as if on cue.

I turned in time to see a sixth year boy throwing a crumpled piece of paper in my direction. I uncrumpled it and read the message written for me.

"Yeah," I grumbled, forcing the paper in the directions of the twins. "No one's gonna care at all."

"Want us to do something about it?" asked Fred, glaring at the boy who'd thrown the paper.

"No…" I said, gathering my things. I looked back down at the paper again. A cutout of my picture in the Daily Prophet with handwritten words covering the border. "Not their fault for not wanting a slag for a champion."

I bunched the paper up in my hand and threw it into a bowl of gravy and started to walk away.

"Uh… Winters," said one of the twins from behind me.

"What?" I yelled, turning around to see George having a stare off with my angry owl who'd climbed into his breakfast.

"I think Bagel's mad that you forgot him," said Fred, trying to conceal a laugh while his brother gently tried to remove the small bird from his eggs.

I whistled loudly and Bagel flew onto my shoulder, dangling three letters from her foot.

"Bagel is a girl!" I stated before stomping out of the Great Hall.

Despite the cold November air and a thin layer of ice covering the grounds, I was burning up in anger. Bagel hooted at me in surprise as I stopped suddenly at the edge of the Black lake and she almost slipped off my shoulder.

The Durmstrang ship was stopped on the opposite edge, but I could still see into the portholes. There were several boys passing by and getting ready to go in for their own breakfast. Some were getting off a few at a time before the main group and those were obviously the ones who had food on the brain more often than not.

I took Bagel in my hands and sat her on my lap, trying to pull the letters from her leg gently.

"Charlie, Remus, and Chai," I said, looking between the letters. "This should be exciting.

Bagel hooted loudly, scratching at my hands. I pat her head for a moment and handed her some crackers from my rucksack.

" You can go back to the owlery now."

Bagel seemed to glare at me as she took off, still angry that I'd left her alone at the table.

"I cannot believe you missed that!" a girl said from a few meters away.

I turned to see a Hufflepuff girl and her friend going to sit at the edge of the Black Lake on the opposite side of the big tree I was sitting next to. I forced myself against the tree so that they couldn't see me as they continued to talk.

"I just walking into the Great Hall and everyone was freaking out!"

"All I know is that Jonah Melroy from Ravenclaw was taunting the 0ther Gryffindor champion."

"Winters? The one that's always hanging with the Weasley twins?"

"He was calling her a slag because of something that was in the Prophet this morning!"

"You're kidding! That's awful."

"So Winters left, obvious, who wouldn't? That's so embarrassing. I thought that was it when the Weasley twins started yelling at him, saying that he had no right to say anything like that to anyone, let alone the champion. Jonah got up and started mocking them, saying that they were just mad that their girlfriend was finally getting called what she is."

"I thought Fred was dating Angelina Johnson?"

"Apparently she does too, because she got up in his face, saying that he had no right to believe anything written about Winters or anyone else. That it's all just hear-say and if he kept messing with her, she'd take a beater bat to his shins!"

"How'd Fred feel about that?"

"He pulled her away from Jonah and kissed her!"

I smiled at this, proud of them for finally making up.

"That can't be all that happened! When I walked in, both of the twins were being dragged away from someone on the floor."

My grin faded away.

"Well, Jonah thought everything was fine and turned around to talk to some of the other older boys. I guess George heard something he didn't like because all of a sudden he was on top of Jonah."

"I just can't wrap my head around the idea of either of the twins fighting someone. They're so sweet! I mean, yeah their pranks are obnoxious, but the thought of them hurting anyone is just so off character for them."

"Imagine watching it! There was blood everywhere. Jonah was so surprised that he only got one good punch in and it wasn't long before Fred and Viktor Krum were trying to pull them apart. Then obviously Flitwick and McGonagall were there and she kept asking which one of the twins was the one with bloody fists and the broken nose. They wouldn't say who was who and obviously no one was going to rat them out. I only knew because of Angelina and Fred kissing."

"Well, I guess it's safe to assume that they've got detention."

"A week of it with Filch. Said he'd be furious that they got blood on the floor."

Slowly, so the girls didn't notice me, I crept away from the tree and slipped into the castle. I took back corridors and slid into the passageway so no one would try and stop me as I made my way up towards Gryffindor tower.

The common room was surprisingly empty for the events that had just happened. I'd figured that everyone would be gathered around, talking and gossiping. The only people in the common room were the twins and Ron. They were all sitting around one of the tables, whispering about things that I couldn't hear.

The second they saw me, George was on his feet and apologizing.

"Winters, I'm really sorry. I know you said that you didn't want us to get involved, but when he started saying those awful things, I just… I- Oh!"

I paused for only a moment before I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him as tightly as I could without hurting him.

"Thank you," I whispered in his neck.

Slowly, he wrapped his arms around my waist, hugging me back.

"I'd do anything for you, Winters," he whispered back.

When I pulled away, I looked at his injured for the first time. Jonah had most definitely broke his nose. There were still small drops of blood falling down his face, adding to the path of dried blood that was touching his top lip.

"George," I said sadly, touching the pads of my finger to his crooked nose and then the blackening around his eyes. "He got one good hit in, I guess. Hit you hard enough to give you two black eyes to match your nose."

"You should see the other guy," said Fred, grinning wildly. "He'll be in the hospital wing for a couple of days."

I took George's hands in mine and observed the broken skin on his knuckles and the swelling on the rest of his hands.

"Come upstairs, I'll clean up your face," I told him.

"Have fun you two," hummed Rom.

"Watch it pipsqueak," I warned, pointing my wand at him. "I'll make you look like your brother."

"Don't threaten him with my charming good looks!" said George, wiping blood from his nose.

I rolled my eyes and forced George upstairs and into the boys dorm as we couldn't go to the girl's dormitories without taking a slide back down into the common room.

"I can't believe you," I muttered, finding a wash clothes in the bathroom and sitting him on the edge of his bed.

"We could just magic all of this away," he said, flinching as I touched his nose.

"I want to do something for you after what you did for me," I said, scrubbing the blood from under his nose. "Besides, I don't use spells on other people unless I have to."

"Why's that?" he asked, grabbing my wrist when I bumped his nose again. "Ow."

I sat on the bed next to him and pulled my hand away.

"Stop moving and I won't touch your nose."

"Why don't you use spells on other people?" he asked again.

I sighed and moved to his hands, gently cleaning the blood from his split knuckles.

"There's a lot of hurt in my past that's caused from people casting unwanted spells. I never want to be the reason someone feels the same kind of things that I felt when I was younger. And I don't like using healing spells when I can do things myself. I've learned a lot at the orphanage. There's a lot of kids there and accidents happen. You've gotta learn how to help them when you can't use magic outside of school."

George looked at me with his blackening eyes and I looked back down to his hands, feeling guilty that he'd gained them because of me.

"Hey," he said, tilting my head up to look at him. "I'd do it again."

"You-You've got something on your lips," I told him, reaching up with the cloth.

He looked sad for a moment. Sad that I hadn't recognized what he said to be true. Sad that I was ignoring what he'd done for me.

"Blood?" he asked, forcing a smile.

"My lips," I whispered, pressing mine against his before he could comprehend what I'd said.

I felt him smile a little as he kissed me back. Then, his hands found their way to the sides of my face, pulling me deeper into the kiss. I dropped the wash cloth onto the bed and then pressed my hands against his sides, trying to keep myself steady.

"That was really smooth," he said, pulling away, a dumb grin on his face.

I looked down, feeling the heat rising to my face.

"Also my first kiss," he said softly, making me look at him and his bright red ears.

"But, you're almost seventeen!" I said, stunned.

"Fred's always been more of the romantic type, I guess. I've always been to busy being his wingman."

"I'm sorry…" I said, grabbing at the wash cloth and continuing to clean his knuckles with my shaking hands. "I didn't know."

"Hey," he assured, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear. "I'd do it again."

His ears somehow turned an even brighter red when he said this.

A million times over…

"You're thinking very loudly," I told him, trying not to laugh.

"I was hoping you'd hear me," said George, grinning.

I just shook my head and looked back down to his hands. I pulled some bandage wrap out of my bag and started to gently wrap it around his knuckles.

"I didn't think you'd ever have it in you to hurt someone," I said, watching specs of blood bleed through the fabric.

"I didn't either, to be honest. The only people I've ever hit before are my brothers, and I've never hit them hard enough for them to actually be hurt, either."

"You Weasley boys are something else," I said smiling. "I can't even comprehend how your parents got so lucky to have so many kids who've got such kind hearts."

"They put them in us," he told me. "If you've ever met my parents, you know that they're the kindest people you'll ever meet. I figure that when you grow up with nothing but love and food around you all the time, you have to absorb some of the goodness."

"My parents were like that," I said. "Kind all the way through. They'd have done anything for my sisters and I, but apparently I'm the only one who got any of their good hearts."

George pressed his hand against my chest, feeling the beating of my heart.

"You have the biggest heart of any person I've ever met, Winters. I mean that. I wouldn't have fought a guy that's twice my size if I didn't believe that."

Should I kiss her again?

"You should definitely kiss me again," I whispered.

I don't know how I got so lucky.

-George Weasley


End file.
